liver

The liver is a very important organ in the body. It cleans the blood, helps break down food, stores energy, and makes bile, which helps with digestion. In everyday English, this is by far the most common meaning. When people talk about liver problems, liver disease, or taking care of your liver, they mean this organ.

There is also a much rarer, older meaning: a liver can mean a person who lives in a certain way, especially in fixed phrases. For example, older English used expressions such as "high liver." The word also appears in old-fashioned descriptive terms like "liverish" and "lily-livered." These are not the main modern uses, but you may still come across them in books or historical writing.

The liver is a large organ in the body, found on the upper right side of the abdomen. It is essential for life. It filters the blood, helps remove harmful substances, stores and releases energy, makes bile for digestion, and supports many chemical processes that keep the body working properly. This is the standard and overwhelmingly common meaning of the word in modern English.

The word also has a second meaning, though it is now rare: a liver can mean a person who lives in a particular way. This sense is mostly seen in older writing or in set expressions rather than in ordinary conversation. Because of that, learners should treat it as a historical or literary use, not the main one to remember.

The word has also left its mark on English through older expressions. "Liverish" can describe someone as irritable or unwell, based on the old belief that trouble with this organ affected a person's mood. "Lily-livered" means cowardly. These expressions help explain why the word sometimes appears in language about personality, even though its main meaning is still the body organ.