a few, of a recent concordance, traits of life:

sapience

sentience - all life has felt pain and also may feel emotions, pleasures, joys

communicability / cognition / intelligence - humanity and animals, mayhaps flora and funga, are able to, somehow, communicate, think (rudimentarily, sophisticatedly, differently), be aware, focus, and understand life (as may vary o'er time and perhaps greatly amongst us all)

reproductive ability

(regarding) reproduction - (physical) sex may {be a part of causing | cause} birth of progeny; asexual reproduction seemingly has also occurred (aspen colonies perhaps)