existential

Of or relating to existence.

Adjective

  1. Of or relating to existence.
    • The third univerſal is appetite; every perfect and imperfect living creature acquires ſuſtenance to eate and drink. For exiſtential or ſenſual, I grant many, that there is a Sun that ſhineth, that the fire heateth, &c....
    • [T]he essential cause of fiendish guilt, when it makes itself existential and peripheric— […] I find the only explanation of a moral phænomenon not very uncommon in the last moments of condemned felons—viz. the...
    • Most of the subjects had terminal cancer, and several died within a year after the trial—but not before having a mental adventure that appeared to have eased the existential gloom of their last days. - 2014 March 3,...

    Antonyms: nonexistential

    1. Concerning the very existence of something, especially with regard to evading extinction.

      • an existential risk or threat
      • [Karl] Jaspers' main concern has been with existential dread, which he regards not as a symptom of mental illness, but as a result of rejecting religious faith. He proposes that man's only way out of existential dread...
      • Here, therefore, we seek to assemble and assess the evidence to provide an overview of how serious trade is as an existential threat to avian taxa in Sundaic Indonesia. - 2015, J[ames] A. Eaton [et al.], “Trade-driven...

      Antonyms: nonexistential

    2. Of an assertion, etc.: assuming or suggesting the existence of something.

      • In recent books on logic, distinction is made between two orders of inquiry concerning anything. First, what is the nature of it? how did it come about? what is its constitution, origin, and history? And second, What is...

      Antonyms: nonexistential

  2. Of or relating to existentialism (“a philosophical movement emphasizing the uniqueness of each human existence in freely making its self-defining choices”).
    • Some existential thinkers are concerned with artistic expression only indirectly, that is, they are passionately interested critics and analysts of art works. - 1967, Thomas [Louis] Hanna, “Albert Camus: Man in Revolt”,...

    Antonyms: nonmetaphysical nonphenomenal noumenal

  3. Relating to part of a clause that indicates existence (for example, there is).

Origin

The adjective is a learned borrowing from Late Latin existentialis, exsistentialis (“coming into or relating to existence”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives; and forming nouns of verbal action). Existentialis, exsistentialis are derived from Late Latin existentia, exsistentia (“existence”) + Latin -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship); and existentia, exsistentia from Latin existēns, exsistēns (“being, existing; appearing, emerging; becoming”) (the present active participle of existō, exsistō (“to be, exist; to appear, emerge; to become”), from ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + sistō (“to cause to stand; to place, set; to halt, stop”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”))) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). The noun is derived from the adjective.

Forms

more existential most existential

Related

aseity exist existence existent

Derived

existential crisis existential instantiation existentialism existentialist existentialistic existentialize existentially existential nihilism existential quantifier existential risk nonexistential singular existential statement

Noun

  1. Ellipsis of existential clause (“a clause that indicates the existence of something”).
    • In classical accounts of Finnish and Estonian grammar, the possibility of using the so-called partitive subject has been one definitional criterion for the category of existential clauses. […] We argue that existentials...
  2. Ellipsis of existential type (“in a type system: a type that hides the underlying concrete type(s)”).

    Coordinate Terms: generic

Forms

existentials