"c'est la vie" meaning in French

See c'est la vie in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

IPA: /s‿ɛ la vi/ Audio: LL-Q150 (fra)-Lyokoï-c'est la vie.wav
Etymology: Literally, “that is life”. Etymology templates: {{m-g|that is life}} “that is life”, {{lit|that is life}} Literally, “that is life” Head templates: {{fr-phrase}} c'est la vie
  1. that's life, such is life Synonyms: ainsi va la vie
    Sense id: en-c'est_la_vie-fr-phrase-pZJPNx~P Categories (other): French entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 4 entries, Pages with entries
{
  "descendants": [
    {
      "lang": "Danish",
      "lang_code": "da",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "c'est la vie"
    },
    {
      "lang": "English",
      "lang_code": "en",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "c'est la vie"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "c’est la vie"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Venetan",
      "lang_code": "vec",
      "raw_tags": [
        "reshaped by analogy or addition of morphemes"
      ],
      "word": "ceste!"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "that is life"
      },
      "expansion": "“that is life”",
      "name": "m-g"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "that is life"
      },
      "expansion": "Literally, “that is life”",
      "name": "lit"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Literally, “that is life”.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "c'est la vie",
      "name": "fr-phrase"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "French",
  "lang_code": "fr",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "French entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 4 entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "that's life, such is life"
      ],
      "id": "en-c'est_la_vie-fr-phrase-pZJPNx~P",
      "links": [
        [
          "that's life",
          "that's life"
        ],
        [
          "such is life",
          "such is life"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "ainsi va la vie"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/s‿ɛ la vi/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q150 (fra)-Lyokoï-c'est la vie.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/da/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lyoko%C3%AF-c%27est_la_vie.wav/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lyoko%C3%AF-c%27est_la_vie.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/da/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lyoko%C3%AF-c%27est_la_vie.wav/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lyoko%C3%AF-c%27est_la_vie.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "c'est la vie"
}
{
  "descendants": [
    {
      "lang": "Danish",
      "lang_code": "da",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "c'est la vie"
    },
    {
      "lang": "English",
      "lang_code": "en",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "c'est la vie"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "c’est la vie"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Venetan",
      "lang_code": "vec",
      "raw_tags": [
        "reshaped by analogy or addition of morphemes"
      ],
      "word": "ceste!"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "that is life"
      },
      "expansion": "“that is life”",
      "name": "m-g"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "that is life"
      },
      "expansion": "Literally, “that is life”",
      "name": "lit"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Literally, “that is life”.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "c'est la vie",
      "name": "fr-phrase"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "French",
  "lang_code": "fr",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "French entries with incorrect language header",
        "French lemmas",
        "French multiword terms",
        "French phrases",
        "French terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "Pages with 4 entries",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "that's life, such is life"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "that's life",
          "that's life"
        ],
        [
          "such is life",
          "such is life"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "ainsi va la vie"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/s‿ɛ la vi/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q150 (fra)-Lyokoï-c'est la vie.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/da/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lyoko%C3%AF-c%27est_la_vie.wav/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lyoko%C3%AF-c%27est_la_vie.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/da/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lyoko%C3%AF-c%27est_la_vie.wav/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lyoko%C3%AF-c%27est_la_vie.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "c'est la vie"
}

Download raw JSONL data for c'est la vie meaning in French (1.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable French dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-10-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-10-01 using wiktextract (19bd8d3 and 1ab82da). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.