survival

noun, often attributive

sur·viv·al | \sər-ˈvī-vəl

Definition of survival

1a : the act or fact of living or continuing longer than another person or thing

b : the continuation of life or existence problems of survival in arctic conditions

2 : one that survives

Examples of survival in a Sentence

The refugees depend on foreign aid for their survival. Small businesses are fighting for survival. the survival of an old folktale

Recent Examples on the Web

The isolated group rely on the forest and its sources of water for survival, but are forced to move almost constantly because of the threat from dangerous outsiders. — Fox News, "Inside the Amazon’s ‘world’s most endangered tribe’ who bathes with turtles and and eats armadillos," 1 Oct. 2018 When Anna wakes up the next morning, the zombie apocalypse is in full force, and senior year becomes one long, bloody battle for survival. — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, "New trailer for Anna and the Apocalypse promises undead slaying for holidays," 5 Sep. 2018 With both Russia and Iran on the winning side, there’s also a new impetus for Israel to court Russia and come to terms with Mr. Assad’s political survival. — Dina Kraft, The Christian Science Monitor, "Syrian civil war, on Israel's doorstep, brings swirl of changing attitudes," 11 July 2018 But now with his political survival in question, Mr. Rouhani is sounding a lot like Iran’s hard-liners. — Sune Engel Rasmussen, WSJ, "Facing Threats at Home and Abroad, Iran’s President Takes a Harder Line," 11 July 2018 The result is that many students are struggling with basic survival. — Marcella Bombardieri, The Atlantic, "One College's Struggle to Get Poor Students Through School," 30 May 2018 The first film from the latest trilogy deals with another massive superweapon, and The Last Jedi deals with the very survival of The Resistance against the First Order and the preservation of hope in the galaxy. — Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, "'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Is Good, But It Could've Been Great," 29 May 2018 And even those lefties who are genuinely committed to socializing the means of production are, typically, quite comfortable with the survival of material inequality within a narrow band (to incentivize and reward socially useful labor). — Eric Levitz, Daily Intelligencer, "Jordan Peterson Does Not Support ‘Equality of Opportunity’," 25 May 2018 And that’s a big reason why the Solar Bears were down 0-3 in the best-of-seven second-round playoff series going into Friday’s Game 4 at Amway Center with survival as the theme. — Steve T. Gorches, OrlandoSentinel.com, "Orlando Solar Bears stave off elimination with gutty win over Florida Everblades," 5 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'survival.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.