Meaning

4 senses
  1. (countable, uncountable)A means of providing the necessities of life for oneself (for example, a job or income).

    an independent livelihood; to make / earn / gain / win a good livelihood by the sweat of one's brow

    Lebensunterhalt, Lebensgrundlage, Auskommen

    сре́дства к существова́ниюsrédstva k suščestvovániju, пропита́ниеpropitánije, жизньžiznʹ

  2. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Property which brings in an income; an estate.

  3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Liveliness; appearance of life.

  4. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)The course of someone's life; a person's lifetime, or their manner of living; conduct, behaviour.

More definitions
  • the financial means whereby one lives

Examples

27 sentences
  1. Our livelihood depends on this river.

  2. Our livelihood depends on this lake.

  3. Only saving lives will save livelihoods.

  4. How is livelihood in America these day?

  5. Life and livelihood are the same thing.

Translations

6 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
means of supporting oneself:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
means of supporting oneself:

Origin

From Middle English liflode, from Old English līflād (“course of life, conduct”), from līf

From Middle English liflode, from Old English līflād (“course of life, conduct”), from līf (“life”) + lād (“course, journey”), later altered under the influence of lively, -hood. Compare life, lode.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: livelihoods

Synonyms

6 synonyms
Close in meaning

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
livelihood — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto