exist

Syllables: ex·ist/ɪɡˈzɪst/

exist verb: to be; have existence; have being or reality.

Verb

exist (third-person singular simple present exists, present participle existing, simple past and past participle existed)

(intransitive, stative) to be; have existence; have being or reality
- Cognitive dissonance exists when a person possesses two cognitions, one of which is contradictory to the other1977, Lawrence S. Wrightsman with Kay Deaux, Social Psychology, page 366
- Various relationships may exist between character and glyph: […]2012, The Unicode Consortium, The Unicode Standard: Version 6.1 – Core Specification, →ISBN, page 12
Synonyms:

be, be a thing, consist, subsist

exist meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

exist in Tamil

to be: இரு iru, உள் uḷ, நிலவு nilavu

exist in Marathi

to exist, live and act: वावरणे vāvarṇe
to exist, dwell, reside: नांदणे nāndaṇē

exist in Urdu

جینا

More languagesFewer languages

exist in Bengali: বিদ্যমান থাকা, থাকা, উপস্থিত থাকা, জীবিত থাকা
exist in Telugu: ఉండు uṇḍu
exist in Malayalam: ഇരിക്കുക irikkuka
exist in Kannada: ಇರು iru
exist in Gujarati: હોવું hŏvũ
exist in Odia: ତିଷ୍ଠିବା tiṣṭhibā
exist in Sanskrit: विद्यते vidyáte, अस्ति ásti
exist in Arabic: وُجِدَ wujida
exist in Malay: wujud
exist in Persian: زیستن zistan, وجود داشتن vojud dâštan, هستادن
exist in Thai: มีอยู่ mii-yùu
exist in Vietnamese: tồn tại

Examples of exist in a sentence

[…], regardless of whether those characters also existed in other character encoding standards.2012, The Unicode Consortium, The Unicode Standard: Version 6.1 – Core Specification, →ISBN, page 19:
[…], which will be treated either as an update of the existing character encoding or as a completely new character encoding.2012, The Unicode Consortium, The Unicode Standard: Version 6.1 – Core Specification, →ISBN, page 55:

All 40 example sentences with exist

Synonyms of exist

be
be a thing
consist
subsist

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of exist

Forms of exist

third-person singular present	exists
present participle	existing
past participle	existed
past	existed
second-person singular present (archaic)	existest
second-person singular past (archaic)	existedst
third-person singular present (archaic)	existeth

Past tense of exist: existed

Origin of exist

From French exister, from Latin existō, exsistō (“I am, I exist, appear, arise”), 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”); see stand. Compare assist, consist, desist, insist, persist, resist. Cognate with Spanish existir, French exister, Italian esistere, German existieren.

Words formed from exist

Words that rhyme with exist

43 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about exist

What does exist mean?: Exist means to be; have existence; have being or reality.
What is exist in Hindi?: Exist in Hindi is अस्तित्व (astitva). See Exist meaning in Hindi.
How do you use exist in a sentence?: […], regardless of whether those characters also existed in other character encoding standards.
What part of speech is exist?: Exist is a verb.
How do you pronounce exist?: Exist is pronounced /ɪɡˈzɪst/.
What is the past tense of exist?: The past tense of exist is existed.

Words near exist in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-exist.ogg.

Cite this entry: “exist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/exist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.