vitality
1
9.8
- noun
- /vaɪˈtælɪti/
- Archaic
:
fuerza vital
- Philosophers once debated whether vitality was a tangible energy that influenced the development of life.
Examples
-
These creatures had no soul but a naked vitality, higher than animals' but not yet human, flowing in from the earth and striving upwards.
Academic text (2001) -
The corpse must be separated from its nyui, its "vitality" or its "shadow."
Academic text (1993) -
The abstract symbols rob vitality from the human drama that was enacted on the local stage.
Academic text (1993) -
This pulse is Kazantzakis's feeling for life itself, to which Bergson ascribes spirit, vitality, movement, and intuition.
Academic text (1991) -
I saw strength of will revealed in a purely physical nature—vitality that transcended brutishness.
Fiction book (1998) -
If we ask that a painting or sculpture be an autonomous object—a thing with its own inherent vitality—it must also have some connection with the world it occupies.
Blog text (22) -
In ancient theories, vitality was believed to be the force driving the growth and evolution of living organisms.
-
Many traditions attribute a special kind of vitality to the natural world, which they believe is essential for biological growth.
Synonyms
5
8.8
An imagined energy that makes living things grow and move
A power once thought to make living things grow and stay alive
A supposed life force that makes living things grow and change
An imagined life force thought to make living things grow and work
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
In older science, vitality was used for a supposed 'vital force', an invisible power people thought made living things grow. Because the word comes from vita 'life', this older idea helps explain why 'vitality' can mean a life force even though modern science usually does not use that view.