Use vital when something is needed for a plan, system, person, or place to keep working or succeed.
Use vital when something is needed for a plan, system, person, or place to keep working or succeed.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| The decorations are vital for the report. | The data are vital for the report. |
| This restaurant is vital because I like it. | This restaurant is important to me because I like it. |
| The meeting was vital, so we cancelled it without effect. | The meeting was useful, so we cancelled it without much effect. |
Use vital in medical, biological, and official-record contexts tied to life, living bodies, or life events.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| The nurse checked a vital. | The nurse checked a vital sign. |
| Vital statistics are blood pressure and pulse. | Vital signs are blood pressure and pulse. |
| A vital organ is just an important organ. | A vital organ is needed to stay alive. |
Use vital in this sense for people, art, writing, cultures, or performances that feel strongly alive.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| The party was vital. | The party was lively. |
| The colors are vital. | The colors are vivid. |
| She gave a vital answer to the phone. | She gave a quick answer to the phone. |
Use vitals in the plural for medical readings, vital organs, or figurative central parts.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| The nurse checked one vital. | The nurse checked one vital sign. |
| His vital were stable. | His vitals were stable. |
| The machine recorded her vital. | The machine recorded her vitals. |
Use vital this way only when reading or echoing older formal style, since fatal and mortal are clearer now.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| The wound was vital to his recovery. | The wound was fatal to him. |
| A vital wound means a helpful wound. | A vital wound means a mortal wound. |
| The medicine had a vital effect on the patient. | The poison had a fatal effect on the patient. |
Use vital for what something cannot do without, for life-related medical and biological ideas, and more formally for lively force.
Vital is weakened when it only means interesting, pleasant, or mildly important.
From Middle English vital, from Old French and Latin vitalis, meaning of life, from vita, life, and related to vivere, to live.
What does vital usually mean?
vital usually means essential, necessary, or too important to lose.
Is vital stronger than important?
Yes. vital suggests that something is needed for survival, success, or continued operation.
What are vital organs?
vital organs are organs such as the heart, lungs, or brain that are needed to stay alive.
What are vitals in medicine?
vitals usually means vital signs, such as pulse, blood pressure, breathing rate, and temperature.
Can vital mean energetic?
Yes. In formal style, a vital person, culture, or performance is full of life and force.
Can vital mean fatal?
Yes, but that use is archaic or literary, as in vital wound meaning mortal wound.
What prepositions follow vital?
vital to and vital for are both common, depending on the phrase.
Is a vital correct?
Current English usually says a vital sign or uses the plural vitals, not a vital.
What is the origin of vital?
vital comes from Latin vitalis, of life, from vita, life.
What are good synonyms for vital?
Common synonyms include essential, indispensable, critical, and crucial.