Vital

adjective
1.
of or relating to life:
vital processes.
2.
having remarkable energy, liveliness, or force of personality:
a vital leader.
3.
being the seat or source of life:
the vital organs.
4.
necessary to life:
vital fluids.
5.
necessary to the existence, continuance, or well-being of something; indispensable; essential:
vital for a healthy society.
6.
affecting the existence, well-being, truth, etc., of something:
a vital error.
7.
of critical importance:
vital decisions.
8.
destructive to life; deadly:
a vital wound.
plural noun
1.
those bodily organs that are essential to life, as the brain, heart, liver, lungs, and stomach.
2.
the essential parts of something:
the vitals of a democracy.
adjective
1.
essential to maintain life: the lungs perform a vital function
2.
forceful, energetic, or lively: a vital person
3.
of, relating to, having, or displaying life: a vital organism
4.
indispensable or essential: books vital to this study
5.
of great importance; decisive: a vital game
6.
(archaic) influencing the course of life, esp negatively: a vital treachery
noun
7.
(pl)

the bodily organs, such as the brain, liver, heart, lungs, etc, that are necessary to maintain life
the organs of reproduction, esp the male genitals

8.
(pl) the essential elements of anything

vital vi·tal (vīt’l)
adj.

Of, relating to, or characteristic of life.

Necessary to the continuation of life.

Used or done on a living cell or tissue, as in staining.

Destructive to life; fatal, as of an injury.

vitals vi·tals (vīt’lz)
pl.n.

The vital body organs.

The parts that are essential to continued functioning, as of a system.

A semantics language using FSL, developed by Mondshein in 1967.
[Sammet 1969, p. 641].
(1995-02-23)
vitals
vital signs (pulse rate, temperature, respiratory rate)