life-support system

noun

: an artificial or natural system that provides all or some of the items (such as oxygen, food, water, control of temperature and pressure, disposition of carbon dioxide and body wastes) necessary for maintaining life or health

Examples of life-support system in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Chilled water constantly flows through these channels, routing across the body’s major muscle groups to absorb metabolic heat and pump it away to the suit’s backpack life-support system. —Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 9 June 2026

The gas then rotates back into the life-support system's carbon dioxide scrubber before recirculating oxygen. —Greta Cross, USA Today, 9 June 2026

SpaceX also needs to integrate a life-support system into Starship ahead of Artemis 4. —Mike Wall, Space.com, 28 May 2026

There is no succession plan, just a life-support system for the post-Wintour era. —Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 25 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1959, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for life-support system

• cryptosystem
• ecosystem
• intersystem
• multisystem
• photosystem
• subsystem

Kids Definition

life-support system

noun

: a system that provides all or some of the items (as oxygen, food, water, proper temperature and air pressure, elimination of carbon dioxide and body wastes) necessary for maintaining life or health

Medical Definition

life-support system

noun

: a system that provides all or some of the items (as oxygen, food, water, and disposition of carbon dioxide and body wastes) necessary for maintaining life or health: as

a

: one used to maintain the health of a person or animal in outer space, underwater, or in a mine

b

: one used to maintain the life of an injured or ill person unable to maintain certain physiological processes without artificial support