Home UK English viva

Main meanings of viva in English

: viva1viva2

viva1

Pronunciation /ˈvʌɪvə/

Translate viva into Spanish

noun

British
short for viva voce
‘The project viva turned out to be smooth sailing.’
  • ‘To decide his fate, he would have to face a viva, a personal interview with the examiners.’
  • ‘They are made over a course of preparation, of examination, of vivas, of evaluation, of letters, of assessments.’
  • ‘From a personal point of view the case note viva was the most traumatic part as I learnt that I can make simple mistakes that I would not expect a junior doctor to make.’
  • ‘The clinical assessors studied 50 case records culled randomly from the past six months' activity, and on the second day I had a two hour viva on selected records.’
  • ‘I recall going for my anatomy viva in June 1964, at the end of my first year at Cambridge.’
  • ‘When performance assessment did occur, as in specialty certification, the traditional viva dominated.’
  • ‘‘Sorry about the poor performance in the viva,’ I said.’
  • ‘Anyway, I managed to squeeze into my exam suit and, in between feeds, nip over to the royal college to do my vivas.’
  • ‘I would love to be able to tell the story of my viva, but can't.’
  • ‘But it was the viva which frightened me to death.’
  • ‘My supervisor informs me that my paper looks fine to submit and informs me the date of my first-year viva.’
  • ‘He submitted his thesis ‘Compound Verb in Bengali’ in 1975 and appeared for the viva.’
  • ‘Our readers should know he cut a fine figure in subfusc on his way to his viva.’
  • ‘Now, after long years, they meet again in California, where she has just walked out of her viva, and he has finished a stint as a visiting professor.’
  • ‘He was said to be the ‘ablest historian of his year’, but he had failed to get a first, and seemed now to be acting out some endless redemptive viva.’

verbvivas, vivaing, vivaed, viva'd

[with object]British

  • Subject (someone) to an oral examination.

    • ‘facing them sat the youth who was being vivaed’

Main meanings of viva in English

: viva1viva2

viva2

Pronunciation /ˈviːvə/

Translate viva into Spanish

exclamation

  • Long live! (used to express acclaim or support for a specified person or thing)

    ‘‘Viva Mexico!’’
    • ‘He ended his speech with: ‘Sophiatown forever, viva Sophiatown’, which was greeted with enthusiastic nods by the crowd of around 60 people.’

noun

  • A cry of ‘viva’ as a salute or cheer.

    • ‘the vivas of the crowd greeted the ship as it returned to port’

Origin

Italian.