Life crossword clue

The most likely answers for the crossword clue “Life” are YEARS, DEATH or FIELD, with 5 letters. Below are 52 answers from 3 to 13 letters, best match first in each length, then what each top answer means and how to tell them apart.

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The best answers, explained

AGE 3 letters · noun

a time of life (usually defined in years) at which some particular qualification or power arises “she was now of school age”

DAYS 4 letters · noun

the time during which someone's life continues “the monarch's last days”

YEARS 5 letters · noun

a late time of life “he's showing his years”

LIVING 6 letters · noun

the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities

KILLING 7 letters · noun

the act of terminating a life

PASTORAL 8 letters · adjective

(used with regard to idealized country life) idyllically rustic “charming in its pastoral setting”

ANIMATION 9 letters · noun

the condition of living or the state of being alive

LIVELINESS 10 letters · noun

animation and energy in action or expression

IMMORTALITY 11 letters · noun

perpetual life after death

Telling them apart

With 4 squares, DAYS, AREA, FORM, KILL and SKIN all fit. The first letter tells them all apart: D → DAYS · A → AREA · F → FORM · K → KILL · S → SKIN. Fill in that crossing answer first.

With 5 squares, YEARS, DEATH, FIELD, BIRTH, YOUTH and ARENA all fit. The first letter settles most of it: Y → YEARS, YOUTH · D → DEATH · F → FIELD · B → BIRTH · A → ARENA. Fill in that crossing answer first.

With 6 squares, LIVING, SPIRIT, SECTOR, DOMAIN, SPHERE and EXPIRY all fit. The third letter tells them all apart: V → LIVING · I → SPIRIT · C → SECTOR · M → DOMAIN · H → SPHERE · P → EXPIRY. Fill in that crossing answer first.

What “life” means

• noun: a characteristic state or mode of living (“social life”)
• noun: the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities (“he could no longer cope with the complexities of life”)
• noun: the course of existence of an individual; the actions and events that occur in living (“he hoped for a new life in Australia”)
• noun: the condition of living or the state of being alive (“while there's life there's hope”)

A clue usually points at one of these senses, so the right answer is the one that matches the sense the puzzle means: check it against the crossing words.

About these answers

We match the clue against our own thesaurus and dictionary (Open English WordNet): words that mean the same as LIFE, and words whose definition is LIFE. We don't copy answers from newspaper puzzles, so a clue that leans on trivia or wordplay may need the crossing letters instead.