Word.ws English Dictionary

have one's whole life ahead of one

have one's whole life ahead of one verb: to be young, and therefore have many years left to live and experience life.

Verb

have one's whole life ahead of one (third-person singular simple present has one's whole life ahead of one, present participle having one's whole life ahead of one, simple past and past participle had one's whole life ahead of one)

  1. (informal) To be young, and therefore have many years left to live and experience life.
    • You're only 25; you have your whole life ahead of you. Go out and travel and see the world.

Forms of have one's whole life ahead of one

third-person singular presenthas one's whole life ahead of one
present participlehaving one's whole life ahead of one
past participlehad one's whole life ahead of one
pasthad one's whole life ahead of one

Origin of have one's whole life ahead of one

The phrase is an exaggeration, the implication being that by being young one has barely experienced life at all.

Questions about have one's whole life ahead of one

What does have one's whole life ahead of one mean?
Have one's whole life ahead of one means to be young, and therefore have many years left to live and experience life.
What part of speech is have one's whole life ahead of one?
Have one's whole life ahead of one is a verb.
What is the past tense of have one's whole life ahead of one?
The past tense of have one's whole life ahead of one is had one's whole life ahead of one.

Words near have one's whole life ahead of one in the dictionary

  1. have one's tail up
  2. have one's tubes tied
  3. have one's way
  4. have one's way with
  5. have one's Weetabix
  6. have one's whole life ahead of one
  7. have one's wicked way with
  8. have one's wig snatched
  9. have one's wits about one
  10. have one's work cut out
  11. have one's work cut out for one

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have one's whole life ahead of one (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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