Lifetime

//ˈlaɪf.taɪm// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The duration of the life of someone or something.

    "a project that will take many human lifetimes to complete"

  2. 2
    the period during which something is functional (as between birth and death) wordnet
  3. 3
    A long period of time. excessive, informal

    "I've been waiting a lifetime for a train."

Synonyms

All synonyms
lifelifespanageagesagesanimal spirits

Example

More examples

"Communism will never be reached in my lifetime."

Etymology

From Middle English lyftyme, equivalent to life + time. Cognate with Icelandic líftími (“lifetime”). Compare also Saterland Frisian Lieuwendstied, Dutch leeftijd and levenstijd, German Low German Levenstied, German Lebenszeit, Danish livstid, Swedish livstid.

Related phrases

all in a lifetimeall in one's lifetimecarrier lifetimechemical lifetimecustomer lifetime valuefluorescence lifetime imaginggive a man a fish and you feed him for a daylegend in one's own lifetimelife-timerlifetime achievement awardlifetime average daily doselifetime cap

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.