Word.ws English Dictionary

make a living

make a living verb: to earn enough income to support oneself and, if applicable, one's family.

Verb

make a living (third-person singular simple present makes a living, present participle making a living, simple past and past participle made a living)

  1. To earn enough income to support oneself and, if applicable, one's family.
    • You found paradise in America. You had a good trade, made a good living.1972 March 14, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather, spoken by Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), Paramount Pictures
  2. To manage to find enough food to survive.

make a living meaning in Tamil, Arabic, Thai and Vietnamese

make a living in Tamil

to make a living
ஜீவி jīvi

make a living in Arabic

earn enough income
اِرْتَزَقَ irtazaqa

make a living in Thai

earn enough income
ทำมาหากิน tam-maa-hǎa-gin

make a living in Vietnamese

earn enough income
kiếm sống

Synonyms of make a living

All synonyms of make a living

Forms of make a living

third-person singular presentmakes a living
present participlemaking a living
past participlemade a living
pastmade a living

Questions about make a living

What does make a living mean?
Make a living means to earn enough income to support oneself and, if applicable, one's family.
What is make a living in Tamil?
Make a living in Tamil is ஜீவி (jīvi). See Make a living meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is make a living?
Make a living is a verb.
What is the past tense of make a living?
The past tense of make a living is made a living.

Words near make a living in the dictionary

  1. make a joke of
  2. make a killing
  3. make a leg
  4. make a light
  5. make a lip
  6. make a living
  7. make a long arm
  8. make a mark
  9. make a meal of
  10. make a meal out of
  11. make a mistake

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: make a living (page history and authors); ஜீவி (Tamil) (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-us-make a living.ogg.

Cite this entry: “make a living.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/make_a_living. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.