existence

The state of being, existing, or occurring; beinghood.

Noun

  1. The state of being, existing, or occurring; beinghood.
    • In order to destroy evil, we must first acknowledge its existence.
    • Fortunate it is for the tranquillity of the new-born infant, if he have any turn for philosophy, that he understands none of the nonsense consecrated by old usage to the commencement of existence. - 1834, L[etitia]...
    • However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence. - 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The...

    Synonyms: presence

  2. Empirical reality; the substance of the physical universe. (Dictionary of Philosophy; 1968)

Origin

From Middle English existence, from Old French existence, from Late Latin existentia (“existence”), from existēns, from existō, exsistō (“I am, I exist”), from ex (“out”) + sistere (“to set, place”) (related to stare (“to stand, to be stood”)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *stísteh₂ti, from the root *steh₂- (“stand”). Cognate with Spanish existencia, French existence, German Existenz. Morphologically exist + -ence.

Forms

existences

Synonyms

being beinghood beingness dasein existence hereness subsistence

Antonyms

nonexistence nothingness inexistence

Hypernyms

state

Hyponyms

coexistence concomitance

Related

exist aseity existential entity

Derived

bane of someone's existence co-existence coexistence existenceless inexistence in existence non-existence nonexistence postexistence preexistence self-existence three marks of existence timeless existence unexistence waste of existence