livelihood
/ˈlaɪvlihʊd//ˈlaɪvlihʊd/
livelihood noun: a means of providing the necessities of life for oneself (for example, a job or income).
Noun
livelihood (countable and uncountable, plural livelihoods)
- A means of providing the necessities of life for oneself (for example, a job or income).
- an independent livelihood; to make / earn / gain / win a good livelihood by the sweat of one's brow
- But now when Philtra ſaw my lands decay,
And former liuelod fayle, ſhe left me quight[…].1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 226
- Synonyms:
- living, subsistence, sustenance
- Property which brings in an income; an estate.
- Then ſayde Peter: Ananias how is it that ſatan hath filled thyne hert
thatt thou ſhuldeſt lye vnto the holy gooſt
and kepe awaye parte off the pryce off the lyvelod[…]?1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts v:[3], folio clix, verso
- Then ſayde Peter: Ananias how is it that ſatan hath filled thyne hert
- Liveliness; appearance of life.
- […] the tiranny of her ſorrowes takes all liuelihood from her cheeke.c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- The course of someone's life; a person's lifetime, or their manner of living; conduct, behaviour.
- wel said Merlyn I knowe a lord of yours in this land that is a passyng true man & a feithful
& he shal haue the nourysshyng of your child
& his name is sir Ector
& he is a lord of fair lyuelode in many partyes in Englond & walys1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “iij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book I
- wel said Merlyn I knowe a lord of yours in this land that is a passyng true man & a feithful
livelihood meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
livelihood in Hindi
- means of supporting oneself
- जीविका jīvikā, आजीविका ājīvikā
livelihood in Tamil
- பிழைப்பு, வாழ்க்கைத் தொழில், வாழ்வாதாரம், வாழ்க்கைப்பாடு
livelihood in Marathi
- livelihood
- उदरनिर्वाह udarnirvāh
livelihood in Urdu
- livelihood, subsistence, living
- معاش ma'āš
More languagesFewer languages
- livelihood in Telugu
- జీవనోపాధి jīvanōpādhi
- livelihood in Malayalam
- ഉപജീവനം upajīvanaṁ, ജീവിതം jīvitaṁ
- livelihood in Kannada
- ಬಾಳಿಕೆ, ಬಾಳ್ವಿಕೆ, ಬಾಳುವೆ, ಬಾಳ್ತನ
- livelihood in Punjabi
- ਰੋਜੀ-ਰੋਟੀ
- livelihood in Gujarati
- વેતન vetan
- livelihood in Sanskrit
- आजीविक ājīvika, आजीव ājīva, जीवित jīvitá, आहार āhāra
- livelihood in Tagalog
- kabuhayan
- livelihood in Arabic
- مَعِيشَة maʕīša, مَعَاش maʕāš
- livelihood in Indonesian
- penghidupan
- livelihood in Vietnamese
- sinh kế
Examples of livelihood in a sentence
- And now he’s dead, and left her a widow, and she is staying here; and we are racking our brains to find out some way of helping her to a livelihood without parting her from her child.1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, chapter 1, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume (please specify...
- Broad, flat marshes on the Loughor Estuary provide Pen-clawdd with its basic livelihood - cockles.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 311, about Pen-clawdd:
- The legal profession believes that client choice is the best way of ensuring standards remain high, because a lawyer's livelihood depends upon their reputation.2013, Matthew Claughton, The Guardian, (letter), 25 April
Synonyms of livelihood
Forms of livelihood
| plural | livelihoods |
|---|---|
| alternative form | livelod |
| alternative form | lyuelode |
| alternative form | lyvelod |
Origin of livelihood
From Middle English liflode, from Old English līflād (“course of life, conduct”), from līf (“life”) + lād (“course, journey”), later altered under the influence of lively, -hood. Compare life, lode.
Questions about livelihood
- What does livelihood mean?
- Livelihood means a means of providing the necessities of life for oneself (for example, a job or income).
- What is livelihood in Hindi?
- Livelihood in Hindi is जीविका (jīvikā), आजीविका (ājīvikā). See Livelihood meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use livelihood in a sentence?
- And now he’s dead, and left her a widow, and she is staying here; and we are racking our brains to find out some way of helping her to a livelihood without parting her from her child.
- What part of speech is livelihood?
- Livelihood is a noun.
- How do you pronounce livelihood?
- Livelihood is pronounced /ˈlaɪvlihʊd/ (UK).
- What is the plural of livelihood?
- The plural of livelihood is livelihoods.
Words near livelihood in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: livelihood (page history and authors); livelihood (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); उदरनिर्वाह (Marathi) (page history and authors); معاش (Urdu) (page history and authors); livelihood (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); livelihood (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); વેતન (Gujarati) (page history and authors); आजीव (Sanskrit) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-livelihood.wav, En-us-livelihood.oga.
Cite this entry: “livelihood.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/livelihood. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.