life of its own
life of its own noun: an independent existence with some characteristics of life, such as dynamism.
Noun
a life of its own (plural lives of their own)
- An independent existence with some characteristics of life, such as dynamism.
- take on a life of its own
- Sartre rejects the notion that an imagined character possesses, in any rational sense, "a life of its own".1996, George Steiner, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An Essay in the Old Criticism, page 181
Examples of life of its own in a sentence
- […], information takes on not only a speed of its own, but a life of its own.2002, John Seely Brown, Paul Duguid, The Social Life of Information, page 18:
- A massive hangover with a life of its own kept Fess pinned to his bed most of Sunday.2003, Kristin Hunter Lattany, The Lakestown Rebellion, page 185:
Forms of life of its own
| plural | lives of their own |
|---|
Questions about life of its own
- What does life of its own mean?
- Life of its own means an independent existence with some characteristics of life, such as dynamism.
- How do you use life of its own in a sentence?
- […], information takes on not only a speed of its own, but a life of its own.
- What part of speech is life of its own?
- Life of its own is a noun.
- What is the plural of life of its own?
- The plural of life of its own is lives of their own.
Words near life of its own in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: life of its own (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-a life of its own.ogg.
Cite this entry: “life of its own.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/life_of_its_own. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.