in living memory
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Within the lifetime of someone still alive
Literally: during the memory of a living person
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
‘ There is no precedent in living memory for the eight years of sustained growth and surging prosperity that Britain has enjoyed with this Conservative government.
Primary schools are pioneering the most far - reaching shake - up of education in living memory.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “in living memory” mean?
Within the lifetime of someone still alive Literally: during the memory of a living person
Is “in living memory” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.