vital

comparative more vital · superlative most vital

1. Relating to or characteristic of life.

   vital energies; vital functions; vital actions

   1 more example

   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.’

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

   Synonyms: lifely

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

   The brain is a vital organ.

   3 more examples

   And doen the heavens afford him vitall food?

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

   3 more examples

   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.

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

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

   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

   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.

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

   Synonyms: crucial, necessary, significant, big, central, consequential, critical, crucial

7. Containing life; living.

   The dart […]pierced a vital part.

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

   2 more examples

   spirits that live throughout, vital in every part

   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

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

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

   Synonyms: extant, live, kicking, above ground, alive, alive and kicking, alive and well, animate

8. Lively, having vitality

   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.

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

9. Capable of living; in a state to live; viable.

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

   1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC

plural Vitals

1. A surname.