Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
If you refer to the ~ of something or someone, you mean that they manage to continue or exist in spite of difficult circumstances.
...companies which have been struggling for ~ in the advancing recession...
Ask for the free booklet ‘Debt: a Survival Guide’.
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2.
If you refer to the ~ of a person or living thing, you mean that they live through a dangerous situation in which it was possible that they might die.
If cancers are spotted early there’s a high chance of ~...
An animal’s sense of smell is still crucial to its ~.
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3.
You can use the ~ of the fittest to refer to a situation in which only the strongest people or things continue to live or be successful, while the others die or fail.
PHRASE