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English
Etymology
From Middle English vital, from Old French vital, from Latin vītālis (“of life, life-giving”), from vīta (“life”), from vīvō (“I live”). Doublet of jiva and quick.
Pronunciation
Adjective
vital (comparative more vital, superlative most vital)
- Relating to, or characteristic of life.
- Synonym: lifely
vital energies; vital functions; vital actions
1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto XX, page 34:But open converse is there none,
So much the vital spirits sink
To see the vacant chair, and think,
‘How good! how kind! and he is gone.’
- Necessary to the continuation of life; being the seat of life; being that on which life depends.
The brain is a vital organ.
1925, Seba Eldridge, The Organization of Life, page 164:We have argued that organizatory agents are operative in all vital processes, processes that overstep the limits of the physicochemical; […]
- Invigorating or life-giving.
- Necessary to continued existence.
The transition to farming was vital for the creation of civilisation.
- Relating to the recording of life events.
Birth, marriage and death certificates are vital records.
- Very important.
- Synonyms: crucial, necessary, significant; see also Thesaurus:important
It is vital that you don't forget to do your homework.
2012 December 14, Simon Jenkins, “We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 2, page 23:David Cameron insists that his latest communications data bill is “vital to counter terrorism”. Yet terror is mayhem. It is no threat to freedom. That threat is from counter-terror, from ministers capitulating to securocrats.
2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 105:Vocabulary is a vital component of educational success in both first and second language contexts.
2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:Typically for the 'get-on-with-it' era, the railway and military worked like demons to restore the vital rail link. The crater was rapidly filled in and the earth tamped solid, the wreckage was removed by breakdown trains, new rails and sleepers were rushed forward by willing hands, and US Army bulldozers piled in. By 2020 on the same day, both tracks were open for traffic again where there had been a gaping pit just hours before.
- Containing life; living.
- Synonyms: extant, live, kicking; see also Thesaurus:alive
1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:spirits that live throughout, vital in every part
- Capable of living; in a state to live; viable.
Antonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
relating to, or characteristic of life
- Arabic: حَيَوِيّ (ḥayawiyy)
- Armenian: կենսական (hy) (kensakan)
- Azerbaijani: həyati
- Belarusian: жыццёвы (žyccjóvy)
- Bulgarian: жи́знен (bg) (žíznen), вита́лен (bg) (vitálen)
- Catalan: vital (ca) m or f
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 生命的 (zh) (shēngmìng de)
- Czech: životní (cs), vitální (cs)
- Dutch: levens- (nl)
- Finnish: vitaalinen, elin- (fi)
- French: vital (fr)
- Galician: vital (gl)
- Georgian: სასიცოცხლო (sasicocxlo)
- German: Lebens- (de)
- Greek: ζωτικός (el) (zotikós)
- Italian: vitale (it)
- Kazakh: өмірлік (ömırlık), өмірдің (ömırdıñ), тіршілік (tırşılık)
- Korean: 생명의 (ko) (saengmyeong-ui)
- Kyrgyz: тиричилик (ky) (tiricilik)
- Latin: vītālis
- Macedonian: животен (životen), витален (vitalen)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: vital, livsviktig
- Persian: حیاتی (fa) (hayâti)
- Polish: życiowy (pl), witalny (pl)
- Portuguese: vital (pt)
- Romanian: vital (ro)
- Russian: жи́зненный (ru) (žíznennyj)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: жѝвотан, ви̏та̄лан
- Roman: žìvotan (sh), vȉtālan (sh)
- Slovak: životný, vitálny (sk)
- Slovene: životen, vitalen
- Spanish: vital (es)
- Tajik: ҳаётӣ (tg) (hayotī)
- Turkish: yaşamsal (tr)
- Ukrainian: життє́вий (žyttjévyj), життьови́й (žyttʹovýj)
- Uzbek: hayotiy (uz)
- Vietnamese: đời sống (vi)
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necessary to the continuation of life
invigorating or life-giving
necessary to continued existence
relating to the recording of life events
Further reading
- “vital”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “vital”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “vital”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Catalan
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin vitālis.
Pronunciation
Adjective
vital m or f (masculine and feminine plural vitals)
- vital
Related terms
French
Etymology
Inherited from Old French vital, from Latin vītālis (“of life, life-giving”).
Pronunciation
Adjective
vital (feminine vitale, masculine plural vitaux, feminine plural vitales)
- vital
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
Galician
Etymology
From Latin vītālis (“of life, life-giving”).
Adjective
vital m or f (plural vitais)
- vital (relating to, or characteristic of life)
- vital, important, necessary
Related terms
German
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin vītālis.
Pronunciation
Adjective
vital (strong nominative masculine singular vitaler, comparative vitaler, superlative am vitalsten)
- lively; hale; vigorous
- Synonyms: lebhaft, markig, rüstig, voller Leben
- (rather rare, formal) vital (necessary to, or characteristic of life)
- Synonyms: lebenswichtig, Lebens-
Declension
Comparative forms of vital
Superlative forms of vital
Indonesian
Etymology
From Dutch vitaal, from Middle French vital, from Latin vītālis.
Pronunciation
Adjective
vital
- vital:
- very important.
- (medicine) necessary to the continuation of life; being the seat of life; being that on which life depends.
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
Interlingua
Adjective
vital (not comparable)
- vital
Related terms
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin vitalis.
Adjective
vital (neuter singular vitalt, definite singular and plural vitale)
- vital
References
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin vitalis.
Adjective
vital (neuter singular vitalt, definite singular and plural vitale)
- vital
References
Portuguese
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin vītālis.
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
- Hyphenation: vi‧tal
Adjective
vital m or f (plural vitais)
- vital (relating to, or characteristic of life)
- vital (necessary to the continuation of life)
- vital (very important)
- Synonyms: crucial, fundamental, essencial
Related terms
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from French vital, from Latin vitalis.
Adjective
vital m or n (feminine singular vitală, masculine plural vitali, feminine and neuter plural vitale)
- vital
Declension
Related terms
Spanish
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin vitālis.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /biˈtal/
- Rhymes: -al
- Syllabification: vi‧tal
Adjective
vital m or f (masculine and feminine plural vitales)
- vital
Derived terms
Related terms
See also
Further reading