vital

From Middle English vital, from Old French vital, from Latin vītālis (“of life, life-giving”), from vīta (“life”), from vīvō (“to live”). Doublet of jiva and quick.

• enPR: vī'təl, IPA^(key): /ˈvaɪtəl/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -aɪtəl

vital (comparative more vital, superlative most vital)

1. Relating to or characteristic of life.

   Synonym: lifely

   vital energies; vital functions; vital actions

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 34:

     But open converse is there none,
     ⁠So much the vital spirits sink
     ⁠To see the vacant chair, and think,
     ‘How good! how kind! and he is gone.’

2. Necessary to the continuation of life; being the seat of life; being that on which life depends.

   The brain is a vital organ.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 12:

     And doen the heavens afford him vitall food?

   • 1925, Seba Eldridge, The Organization of Life, page 164:

     We have argued that organizatory agents are operative in all vital processes, processes that overstep the limits of the physicochemical; […]

   • 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     Challenger breathed two or three times with enormous gulps, his lungs roaring as he drew in the vital gas.

3. Invigorating or life-giving.
4. Necessary to continued existence.

   The transition to farming was vital for the creation of civilisation.

5. Relating to the recording of life events.

   Birth, marriage and death certificates are vital records.

6. Very important.

   Synonyms: crucial, necessary, significant; see also Thesaurus:important

   It is vital that you don't forget to do your homework.

   • 2012 December 14, Simon Jenkins, “We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys”, in The Guardian Weekly‎^[1], volume 188, number 2, page 23:

     David Cameron insists that his latest communications data bill is “vital to counter terrorism”. Yet terror is mayhem. It is no threat to freedom. That threat is from counter-terror, from ministers capitulating to securocrats.

   • 2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 105:

     Vocabulary is a vital component of educational success in both first and second language contexts.

   • 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:

     Typically for the 'get-on-with-it' era, the railway and military worked like demons to restore the vital rail link. The crater was rapidly filled in and the earth tamped solid, the wreckage was removed by breakdown trains, new rails and sleepers were rushed forward by willing hands, and US Army bulldozers piled in. By 2020 on the same day, both tracks were open for traffic again where there had been a gaping pit just hours before.

7. Containing life; living.

   Synonyms: extant, live, kicking; see also Thesaurus:alive

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     spirits that live throughout, vital in every part

   • 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”, in Essays: First Series:

     I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways.

   • 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book V”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:

     The dart […] pierced a vital part.

8. Lively, having vitality
   • 1984 February 4, M. S., “Celles qui aiment: The Lesbians of Montreal”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 28, page 14:

     Montreal is a charming vital city with a large lesbian and gay population which clusters around a neighborhood not far from the center of town.

9. Capable of living; in a state to live; viable.
   • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

     Pythagoras and Hippocrates […] affirming the birth of the seventh month to be vital.

• mortal

• “vital”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “vital”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “vital”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Borrowed from Latin vitālis.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [biˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [viˈtal]

• Audio (Barcelona):

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vital m or f (masculine and feminine plural vitals)

1. vital

• vida
• vitalitat

From Latin vītālis

vital (neuter vitalt, plural and definite singular attributive vitale)

1. vital

• vitalitet
• vitalisme

• livsvigtig

• “vital” in Den Danske Ordbog

Inherited from Old French vital, from Latin vītālis (“of life, life-giving”).

• IPA^(key): /vi.tal/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Homophones: vitale, vitales

vital (feminine vitale, masculine plural vitaux, feminine plural vitales)

1. vital

• nœud vital
• pronostic vital

• vitalité
• vie

• “vital”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Learned borrowing from Latin vītālis (“of life, life-giving”).

vital m or f (plural vitais)

1. vital (relating to, or characteristic of life)
2. vital, important, necessary

• vida
• vitalidade

Borrowed from Latin vītālis.

• IPA^(key): /viˈtaːl/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

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• Rhymes: -aːl

vital (strong nominative masculine singular vitaler, comparative vitaler, superlative am vitalsten)

1. lively; hale; vigorous

   Synonyms: lebhaft, markig, rüstig, voller Leben

2. (rather rare, formal) vital (necessary to, or characteristic of life)

   Synonyms: lebenswichtig, Lebens-

From Dutch vitaal, from Middle French vital, from Latin vītālis.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈvital/ [ˈfi.t̪al]
• Rhymes: -ital
• Syllabification: vi‧tal

vital (comparative lebih vital, superlative paling vital)

1. vital:
   1. very important
   2. (medicine) necessary to the continuation of life; being the seat of life; being that on which life depends
2. critical: extremely important

   informasi vital

   critical information

• “vital”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

vital (not comparable)

1. vital

• vita

Borrowed from Latin vitalis.

vital (neuter singular vitalt, definite singular and plural vitale)

1. vital

• “vital” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Borrowed from Latin vitalis.

vital (neuter singular vitalt, definite singular and plural vitale)

1. vital

• “vital” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Learned borrowing from Latin vītālis.

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: vi‧tal

vital m or f (plural vitais)

1. vital (relating to, or characteristic of life)
2. vital (necessary to the continuation of life)
3. vital (very important)

   Synonyms: crucial, fundamental, essencial

• vida
• vitalidade
• vitalmente

• “vital”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “vital”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from French vital, from Latin vitalis.

vital m or n (feminine singular vitală, masculine plural vitali, feminine/neuter plural vitale)

1. vital

• vitalitate

Borrowed from Latin vitālis.

• IPA^(key): /biˈtal/ [biˈt̪al]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: vi‧tal

vital m or f (masculine and feminine plural vitales)

1. vital

• vivo

• “vital”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025