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living thing

living thing

63 1.0
A plant, animal, or small creature that grows and needs food and water
  • noun
  • /ˈlɪvɪŋ θɪŋ/
translation icon : ser vivo
  • Many kinds of living things, including plants and animals, depend on one another for survival.
  • living things on Earth
  • other living things
  • living things in the world

And if it's not treated well, like any living thing, it dies.

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Examples

  • The forest is rich with a variety of living things, from tiny insects to towering trees.

  • When you imagine microscopic beings, you might not think about them as living things with daily lives.

    Academic text (2011)
  • You are here to love all living things.

  • Many kinds of living things have already been lost.

  • The oldest living thing on the planet.

  • Mountains last for millions of years, but living things only last for a short while.

  • Biodiversity is the variety of all living things on Earth, which includes its millions of people.

    Academic text (2001)
  • Was Mars once a green world with living things and blue oceans?

  • I can see auras around every living thing, humans, animals, plants.

  • Because you see, DNA is like a blueprint that tells living things what to make.

Synonyms

organism
vsliving thing
229 3.5

A living thing like an animal or plant made of cells

is broader everyday wording rather than a strictly scientific term
life form
vsliving thing
127 2.8

A plant, an animal, or a tiny organism

is a simple everyday phrase for the same basic biological idea
lifeform
vsliving thing
5 3.7

A living thing like an animal, plant, or tiny creature

is used more generally without stressing separate entity status

Antonyms

1.0

Not alive or working, for example a battery with no power

11 5.3

Not alive and cannot move or feel

How Alive

living thing
63 1.0
dormant
17 4.0
dead
1.0
inanimate
11 5.3

Surface Forms

living thing singular
living things plural

Morphology

living + thing

The meaning 'a creature or organism that is alive' is directly and compositionally derived from 'living' (alive) + 'thing' (entity/object); the adjective + noun pattern yields the straightforward interpretation of an entity that is living. This construction is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English adjective-noun composition, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand it.

Etymology

The compound living thing comes from joining living and thing to make a clear image: a thing that is 'alive', like a plant, animal, or small creature. So it means 'a creature that is alive'.