vital force
- noun
- Archaic
:
fuerza vital
- The spirit, breath, or air... umoya, is the vital force of the body.
Examples
-
Illnesses of the soul result from a disturbance of a being's vital force.
-
Animistic means all natural phenomena were seen as animated by vital force.
Academic text (1990) -
All cases reflect a state of weakness and vulnerability related to the loss of vital forces.
Academic text (2008) -
The spirit, breath, or air... umoya, is the vital force of the body.
Academic text (1994) -
Illnesses of the soul result from a disturbance of a being's vital force.
Academic text (2008) -
O.P. Sharma has, for many years, been a vital force in the promotion, encouragement, and development of photography in all of its varied aspects.
Academic text (1996) -
Historically, the belief in vital forces was a reaction against materialism; its resurgence is a response to a "crisis of representation" in biomedicine, whose images and metaphors have come into question.
Academic text (2001) -
The origin of life and its continuous evolution, according to this metaphysics, assumes a vital force (élan vital), which constantly pushes life toward higher forms.
Academic text (1996) -
The origin of life and its continuous evolution, according to this metaphysics, assumes a vital force (élan vital), which constantly pushes life toward higher forms.
Synonyms
5
8.8
An imagined energy that makes living things grow and move
1
9.8
Old idea that a force that is not physical makes living things grow
A supposed life force that makes living things grow and change
An imagined life force thought to make living things grow and work
How Vital
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase transparently combines 'vital' (relating to life or necessary for life) with 'force' (a power or causal influence), so its meaning as a life-related or life-giving power is directly derivable from the parts. Although the term is somewhat technical and historical in biology, the compositional logic is clear and would be accessible to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
The noun vital force comes from an old idea that living things have a special inner power. People imagined a hidden vital 'life' force that made plants and animals 'alive', so the phrase came to mean that special power that causes life.