Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of life: synonym: living.
  • adjective Necessary to the continuation of life; life-sustaining.
  • adjective Used or done on a living cell or tissue.
  • adjective Concerned with or recording data pertinent to lives.
  • adjective Full of life or energy; animated.
  • adjective Necessary to continued existence or effectiveness.
  • adjective Extremely important; essential.
  • adjective Destructive to life; fatal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to life, either animal or vegetable: as, vital energies.
  • Contributing to life; necessary to life: as,vital air; vital blood.
  • Containing life; living.
  • Being the seat of life; being that on which life, depends; hence, essential to existence; indispensable.
  • Capable of living; viable.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Belonging or relating to life, either animal or vegetable
  • adjective Contributing to life; necessary to, or supporting, life.
  • adjective Containing life; living.
  • adjective Being the seat of life; being that on which life depends; mortal.
  • adjective Very necessary; highly important; essential.
  • adjective rare Capable of living; in a state to live; viable.
  • adjective [Obs.] oxygen gas; -- so called because essential to animal life.
  • adjective (Physiol.) the breathing capacity of the lungs; -- expressed by the number of cubic inches of air which can be forcibly exhaled after a full inspiration.
  • adjective (Biol.) See under Force. The vital forces, according to Cope, are nerve force (neurism), growth force (bathmism), and thought force (phrenism), all under the direction and control of the vital principle. Apart from the phenomena of consciousness, vital actions no longer need to be considered as of a mysterious and unfathomable character, nor vital force as anything other than a form of physical energy derived from, and convertible into, other well-known forces of nature.
  • adjective (Physiol.) those functions or actions of the body on which life is directly dependent, as the circulation of the blood, digestion, etc.
  • adjective an immaterial force, to which the functions peculiar to living beings are ascribed.
  • adjective statistics respecting the duration of life, and the circumstances affecting its duration.
  • adjective (Physiol.) See under Tripod.
  • adjective (Bot.) a name for latex tubes, now disused. See Latex.
  • noun rare A vital part; one of the vitals.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Relating to, or characteristic of life.
  • adjective Necessary to the continuation of life; being the seat of life; being that on which life depends.
  • adjective Invigorating or life-giving.
  • adjective Necessary to continued existence.
  • adjective Relating to the recording of life events.
  • adjective Very important.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective manifesting or characteristic of life
  • adjective full of spirit
  • adjective urgently needed; absolutely necessary
  • adjective performing an essential function in the living body

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin vītālis, from vīta, life; see gwei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin vītālis ("of life, life-giving"), from vīta ("life"), from vīvō ("live").

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Examples

  • The geologic records attest the fact, as well as the ever-acting vital law; and it is enough for us to know, with sturdy old Richard Hooker, that all law -- and especially all _vital_ law -- "has her seat in the bosom of God, and her voice is the harmony of the world."

    Life: Its True Genesis R. W. Wright

  • If I love my mother, it is because there is established between me and her a direct, powerful circuit of vital magnetism, call it what you will, but a direct flow of dynamic _vital_ interchange and intercourse.

    Fantasia of the Unconscious 1907

  • But if religion is not consciously vital to the Filipinos, as they themselves would conceive and act on it (and I make the assertion in the assumption that the reader understands as I do by _consciously vital_ that for which the individual or the race is willing to die singly or collectively), the unprejudiced observer must admit that it is vital to their ultimate evolution, vital in just the sense that any function is vital to one who is in need of it.

    A Woman's Impression of the Philippines Mary Helen Fee

  • Is it a fact that the only significance to the term vital is that we have not yet been able to explain these processes to our entire satisfaction?

    The Story of the Living Machine A Review of the Conclusions of Modern Biology in Regard to the Mechanism Which Controls the Phenomena of Living Activity

  • Maybe the term vital organ also incorporates such things as bone marrow.

    unknown title 2011

  • Maybe the term vital organ also incorporates such things as bone marrow.

    unknown title 2011

  • Maybe the term vital organ also incorporates such things as bone marrow.

    unknown title 2011

  • Maybe the term vital organ also incorporates such things as bone marrow.

    unknown title 2011

  • Maybe the term vital organ also incorporates such things as bone marrow.

    unknown title 2011

  • Obama says increasing government revenue through tax hikes would prevent the need to cut what he called vital programs such as student loans, medical research and government healthcare for elderly Americans.

    Obama, Republican Lawmakers Debate Debt Crisis 2011

Comments

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  • contronymic: lively vs. deadly as in "vital wound"

    December 10, 2006

  • Money is vital to the success of the program.

    April 14, 2007

  • 'No one seems to realise how vital my supply of oxygen is'

    - Peter Reading, C, 1984

    July 23, 2008

  • And your eyes now often tell me

    That your once vital talent to extract joy

    From the air

    Has fallen into a sleep.

    - Hafiz, 'The Theatre of Freedom', from 'The Subject Tonight is Love' translated by Daniel Ladinsky.

    August 11, 2008