Basic Details
Word: Survived
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: The past tense of survive: stayed alive through danger, illness or hard times, or continued to exist.
Synonyms: endured, outlived, pulled through
Antonyms: perished, died
How to Spell Survived
Syllables: sur - vived
Tricky part: It starts with sur, not ser, and survive already ends in e, so only d is added. Servived and survivied are common slips.
Watch out for: servived, survivied, survivd
Memory tip: Look for vive, from the Latin for live: to survive is to live on through something. Sur + vive + d.
Usage Examples
Example 1: Only one old banyan tree survived the cyclone.
Example 2: My grandfather survived a serious illness and now walks five kilometres a day.
Example 3: Very few letters from that time have survived.
Fun Fact
Tardigrades, tiny eight-legged animals less than a millimetre long, have survived being exposed to the vacuum of space in experiments.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word survived as it is used in the sentence:
To everyone's surprise, the small sapling survived the long, harsh winter in the hills.
a) endured
b) perished
c) outlived
d) lasted
Show answer
b) perished. A plant that perished died, while one that survived lived on.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
The fishermen servived three nights at sea by sharing a single tin of biscuits and a bottle of water.
a) servived
b) biscuits
c) bottle
d) fishermen
Show answer
a) servived. The word starts with sur, the same as surprise and surface.
Spell-o-Spell
Read the four words. Choose the meaning of the only correctly spelt word:
1. survived 2. recoverd 3. escapped 4. rescude
a) got well after an illness
b) stayed alive through danger
c) saved someone from danger
d) got away from a place
Show answer
b) stayed alive through danger. Rescued keeps the e of rescue, recovered needs its e, and escaped has only one p.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A plant that survived the drought ____.
a) was sold
b) was planted again
c) dried up
d) stayed alive
Show answer
d) stayed alive
2. If an old custom has survived, it ____.
a) was banned long ago
b) has been forgotten
c) was never started
d) is still followed today
Show answer
d) is still followed today
