livelihood

livelihood — noun

1. the money a person earns through work, used to cover everyday costs such as food

1.nounB2
Definition

the money a person earns through work, used to cover everyday costs such as food, housing, and other basic needs.

Example

Meera earns her livelihood by running a small bakery in the town market.

collocation: earn + possessive + livelihood

Many fishing families lost their livelihoods after the river became too polluted.

collocation: lose + possessive + livelihood

Common collocations
  • earn a livelihood
  • lose your livelihood
  • protect someone's livelihood
  • threaten someone's livelihood
  • stable livelihood
  • reliable livelihood
  • means of livelihood
  • source of livelihood
Synonyms
  • living

    More informal and conversational; appears mainly in the fixed phrase make a living

  • income

    Narrower — refers only to money received, not the full way of surviving

  • occupation

    Focuses on the type of job, not on whether it pays enough to live on

  • employment

    Emphasises the state of having a paid job rather than the financial result

Grammar Patterns

earn/protect/lose + possessive + livelihood

somebody's livelihood

a means/source of livelihood

Usage Note

Often used with possessive determiners (his livelihood, their livelihoods) or in fixed patterns with verbs of acquisition or loss such as earn, protect, lose, and threaten. More formal than the phrase ‘make a living,’ which is the preferred everyday expression for the same idea.

Common Mistakes

He works hard for livelihood.
He works hard for his livelihood.
Livelihood usually needs a possessive determiner (his, her, their) or an article when used after a preposition like for.
She makes a livelihood as a nurse.
She earns her livelihood as a nurse.
The standard verb with livelihood is earn; make a living is a separate fixed phrase.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Livelihood, living, income, occupation, and employment all relate to how a person supports themselves, but they differ in emphasis. Livelihood stresses the overall means of survival — the combination of work and resources that keep a person housed, fed, and clothed. Living appears mainly in the fixed phrase ‘make a living,’ which is more conversational and less formal than livelihood. Income is narrower: it refers strictly to the money received, without any suggestion of the work or activities involved. Occupation focuses on the type of job a person holds, without addressing whether it pays enough to live on. Employment is the state of having paid work. For example: ‘Fishing is his livelihood, his official occupation is deckhand, his annual income is barely thirty thousand, and he holds that employment only six months a year.’

living ↗income ↗occupation ↗employment ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • source of livelihood
  • means of livelihood
  • loss of livelihood
  • threat to livelihood

Phrases

  • earn a livelihood
  • lose your livelihood
  • protect your livelihood
  • fight for your livelihood
  • depend on someone/thing for your livelihood

Prepositions

  • livelihood + in (livelihood in farming)
  • livelihood + from (livelihood from fishing)
  • livelihood + of (the livelihood of local farmers)

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

From Old English līflād (life + way or course), which originally meant ‘way of life’ or ‘conduct of life.’ In Middle English the spelling shifted to livelode under the influence of words like livelihood (from lively + -hood), and the sound and spelling of the second part gradually merged with the suffix -hood. By the 1500s the word had taken on its modern meaning of ‘a means of keeping oneself alive.’