sə(r)ˈvīvəl noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: survive + -al
1.
a. : the action of living longer than another person or beyond something (as a time, event, development, or condition)
the wife's survival of her husband
the survival of the soul after death
b. : the continuance of something (as a custom) after the end of the period of the cessation of the conditions in which it had significance
c. : the continuation of life or existence in the presence of or despite usually difficult conditions
the biological needs of survival and reproduction — Flanders Dunbar
problems of survival in arctic conditions
2.
a. : one that survives or remains after others of its kind have disappeared : one that continues to exist after the cessation of something : a surviving individual or remnant
survivals of classical sculpture which … existed in Byzantium — O. Elfrida Saunders
b. : a culture trait remaining from former times but with diminished significance or with a function or utility meaningful only in terms of past history
c. : a linguistic feature that has escaped extinction or has resisted change