occupation or employment
Also called (literary): livelod, livelood
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
live•li•hood /ˈlaɪvliˌhʊd/USA pronunciation
n. [countable* usually singular]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- a means of supporting one's existence:Teaching is his livelihood.
live•li•hood
(līv′lē hŏŏd′),USA pronunciation n.
- a means of supporting one's existence, esp. financially or vocationally;
living:to earn a livelihood as a tenant farmer.
- bef. 1000; earlier liveliod, livelihod, alteration (by reanalysis as lively + hood; compare obsolete livelihood liveliness) of Middle English livelod, Old English līflād conduct of life, way of life (see life, lode, load)
- sustenance, subsistence. See living.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
'livelihood' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
Eightfold Path
- bread
- bread and butter
- breadwinner
- career
- crust
- down-and-out
- farm
- fowling
- hand-to-mouth
- keep
- living
- maintenance
- meal ticket
- mere
- mudlark
- pick
- porkchopper
- precarious
- professional
- professionalism
- prosateur
- racket
- ragpicker
- strip
- subsistence
- subsistence farming
- sustenance
- trade
- vagrant
- weaver
- wits
- work