existence
/ɛɡˈzɪs.təns/
existence noun: the state of being, existing, or occurring; beinghood.
Noun
existence (countable and uncountable, plural existences)
- 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] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 71
- Synonyms:
- presence
- Empirical reality; the substance of the physical universe. (Dictionary of Philosophy; 1968)
existence meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
existence in Hindi
- state of being, existing, or occurring
- अस्तित्व astitva, भाव bhāv, हस्ती hastī, वजूद vajūd
existence in Tamil
- state of being, existing, or occurring
- இருத்தல் iruttal
existence in Marathi
- state of being, existing, or occurring
- अस्तित्व astitva
existence in Urdu
- state of being, existing, or occurring
- ہَسْتی hastī, وَجُود vajūd
More languagesFewer languages
- existence in Bengali
- অস্তিত্ব ostitto, ওজুদ ōjud
- existence in Telugu
- ఉనికి uniki
- existence in Malayalam
- അസ്തിതം astitaṁ
- existence in Kannada
- ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವ astitva
- existence in Punjabi
- ਵਜੂਦ vajūd, ਹੋਂਦ hond, وَجُود vajūd
- existence in Gujarati
- અસ્તિત્વ astitva
- existence in Odia
- ଅସ୍ତିତ୍ବ astitba
- existence in Sanskrit
- अस्तित्व ástitva
- existence in Assamese
- অস্তিত্ব ostitto
- existence in Pashto
- شتون štun, هستي hastí, وجود wojúd
- existence in Tagalog
- kamayhan, kamayrunan, pag-iral, pamamarati
- existence in Arabic
- وُجُود wujūd, كَيْنُونَة kaynūna
- existence in Indonesian
- eksistensi, adanya, keberadaan
- existence in Thai
- การมีอยู่ gaan-mii-yùu, การมีตัวตน
- existence in Vietnamese
- tồn tại
- existence in Myanmar
- ဇာတ် jat
Examples of existence in a sentence
- At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
- The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.2012 March-April, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146:
- The ancients said, “A ruler should exist for the existence of the people.” The famous thinker, Mencius noted, “The people are the most valuable, then the country, and the ruler comes last.”2020 June 29, Wendi, “The Loyal General Yue Fei”, in Minghui:
Synonyms of existence
Antonyms
Forms of existence
| plural | existences |
|---|
Origin of existence
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. Displaced native Old English understandennes (literally, "understanden-ness"). Morphologically exist + -ence.
Words formed from existence
Phrases with existence
Words that rhyme with existence
Questions about existence
- What does existence mean?
- Existence means the state of being, existing, or occurring; beinghood.
- What is existence in Hindi?
- Existence in Hindi is अस्तित्व (astitva), भाव (bhāv), हस्ती (hastī). See Existence meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use existence in a sentence?
- At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.
- What part of speech is existence?
- Existence is a noun.
- How do you pronounce existence?
- Existence is pronounced /ɛɡˈzɪs.təns/ (US).
- What is the plural of existence?
- The plural of existence is existences.
Words near existence in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: existence (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-existence.ogg.
Cite this entry: “existence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/existence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.