Word.ws English Dictionary

élan vital

/eɪˈlɑn viˈtɑl/

élan vital noun: the life force or vital principle posited in the philosophy of Henri Bergson; any mysterious or creative vital principle.

Noun

élan vital (uncountable)

  1. The life force or vital principle posited in the philosophy of Henri Bergson; any mysterious or creative vital principle.
    • Progress was a labyrinth. . . people plunging blindly in and then rushing wildly back, shouting that they had found it. . . the invisible king—the élan vital—the principle of evolution. . .1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 5, in This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book II (The Education of a Personage), page 285
    • She turned astonished blue eyes towards Mr. Wimbush, then let them fall on to the seething mass of élan vital that fermented in the sty.1921, Aldous Huxley, chapter 5, in Crome Yellow, London: Chatto & Windus, page 40

Origin of élan vital

An unadapted borrowing from French élan vital (“life force”, literally “vital impetus or force”), coined by Henri Bergson in 1907.

Questions about élan vital

What does élan vital mean?
Élan vital means the life force or vital principle posited in the philosophy of Henri Bergson; any mysterious or creative vital principle.
What part of speech is élan vital?
Élan vital is a noun.
How do you pronounce élan vital?
Élan vital is pronounced /eɪˈlɑn viˈtɑl/.

Words near élan vital in the dictionary

  1. écus
  2. égalitarian
  3. égalitarianism
  4. Éire
  5. élan
  6. élan vital
  7. élans
  8. Élisabeth
  9. Élise
  10. élite
  11. éliteness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: élan vital (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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