existential type

Noun

1. In a type system: a type that hides the underlying concrete type(s).
   • Existential types are fundamentally no more complicated than universal types (in fact, we will see in §24.3 that existentials can straightforwardly be encoded in terms of universals). - 2002, Benjamin C. Pierce, Types...
   • Scala 2 supported existential types, a way of abstracting over types. They let you assert that some type exists without specifying exactly what it is, usually because you don't know what it is and you don't need to know...
   • This behavior is what gives existential types their name: we are asserting that there exists some concrete type that matches the signature, and we leave it up to the compiler to find what that type is. - 2021, Jon...

   Synonyms: existential

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see existential, type.
   • This is an existential type of anxiety that stems from the feeling that we are not at home in this world. - 2001, John F. Schumaker, The Age of Insanity: Modernity and Mental Health, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN,...
   • He was an existential type dude with no belongings to speak of. He didn't care about tomorrow; he lived in the moment. He was always reading a book; quiet yet explosive. - 2007 November 26, Paul Ferrara, Flash of Eden,...