Lives

Lives is the plural form of life and the third-person singular present tense of the verb to live. In everyday use, a life refers to the ongoing existence and experience of a living being, encompassing biological processes, growth, and interaction with the environment. The term can describe individual organisms or the broader condition of being alive across a population.

In biology and demography, life and life expectancy describe how long organisms or humans are expected to live. The lifespan of a species is the typical range of ages reached by its members, while life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average age at death within a population. In policy and ethics, the term lives is often used as a unit of impact, for example in phrases such as lives saved or lives lost.

Culturally and philosophically, life is a central concept linked to value, rights, and identity. Debates about the moral status of different life forms, the quality of life, and end-of-life decisions influence law, medicine, and ethics. The plural lives can also appear in discussions about communities, histories, and personal narratives, where individual experiences contribute to a collective understanding of existence.

Usage notes: lives functions as a noun in the plural (multiple lives) and as the present-tense verb form (he lives, they live). The spelling change from life to lives reflects English pluralization for words ending in -fe. Examples: many lives were affected; lives saved.