living thing
63
1.0
- noun
- /ˈlɪvɪŋ θɪŋ/
- 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
Loading YouTube…
Watch on YouTubeAnd if it's not treated well, like any living thing, it dies.
- And if it's not treated well, like any living thing, it dies.
- Many kinds of living things have already been lost.
- All of us will feel differently about being a living thing in the cosmos.
- The Uncali's world is made of living things, and that's what I'm interested.
- And the one thing which every living thing really does is make proteins.
- Mountains last for millions of years, but living things only last for a short while.
- Because you see, DNA is like a blueprint that tells living things what to make.
- So here we have two artifacts, both made by living things.
- The people in the United States could suffer because those are real living things, right?
- In other words, if you're alive today, well, then you're descendant from the first living thing, right?
- So if a soil is a living thing, it must have rights.
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
229
3.5
A living thing like an animal or plant made of cells
127
2.8
A plant, an animal, or a tiny organism
5
3.7
A living thing like an animal, plant, or tiny creature
Antonyms
How Alive
Surface Forms
Morphology
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'.