presence

Syllables: pres·enceUK/ˈpɹɛzəns/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈpɹezəns/

presence noun: the fact or condition of being present, or of being within sight or call, or at hand. Also the ellipsis of presence chamber.

Noun

presence (countable and uncountable, plural presences)

The fact or condition of being present, or of being within sight or call, or at hand.
- Any painter can benefit from the presence of a live model from which to draw.
- Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St....1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
The part of space within one's immediate vicinity.
- Bob never said anything about it in my presence.
A quality of poise and effectiveness that enables a performer to achieve a close relationship with their audience.
A quality that sets an individual out from others; a quality that makes them noticed and/or admired even if they are not speaking or performing.
- Despite being less than five foot, she filled up the theatre with her stage presence.
- Perrin Ferris succeeds in his equally demanding task of maintaining some semblance of presence while sharing the stage with a chronic upstager.1976 February 14, Don Shewey, “Haunted Host (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 33, page 14
Something (as a spirit) felt or believed to be present.
- I'm convinced that there was a presence in that building that I can't explain, which led to my heroic actions.
A company's business activity in a particular market.
(archaic) An assembly of great persons.
The state of being closely focused on the here and now, not distracted by irrelevant thoughts.
Synonym of room tone.

Synonyms:

room tone

Verb

presence (third-person singular simple present presences, present participle presencing, simple past and past participle presenced)

(ambitransitive) To make or become present.
- Presence means: the constant abiding that approaches man, reaches him, is extended to him. But what is this source of this extending reach to which the present belongs as presencing, insofar as there is presence? True, man always remains approached by the presencing of something actually present...1972, Joan Stambaugh, Time and being (lecture), translation of original by Martin Heidegger, page 13
- Within a completely neutral horizon, the primordial continuous stream of experience is presenced without interruption. As this time, the past and future have no meaning apart from the now in which they are presenced.1985, David Edward Shaner, The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism: A Phenomenological Study of Kūkai and Dōgen, page 59

Also used as

presence is also the ellipsis of presence chamber.

presence meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

presence in Hindi

fact or condition of being present: उपस्थिति upasthiti

presence in Tamil

பிரசன்னம்

presence in Marathi

fact or condition of being present: हजेरी hajerī, उपस्थिती upasthitī

presence in Urdu

fact or condition of being present: موجودگی maujūdgī

More languagesFewer languages

presence in Malayalam: സാന്നിദ്ധ്യം
presence in Kannada: ಉಪಸ್ಥಿತಿ
presence in Punjabi: ਮੌਜੂਦਗੀ
presence in Arabic: حُضُور ḥuḍūr
presence in Indonesian: kehadiran

Examples of presence in a sentence

Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
Presence means: the constant abiding that approaches man, reaches him, is extended to him.1972, Joan Stambaugh, Time and being (lecture), translation of original by Martin Heidegger, page 13:
Just as the bread and butter can be presenced as more than just the bread and the butter, so baking a loaf of bread can be more than just the baking, the baker, and the bread.1998, H. Peter Steeves, Founding Community: A Phenomenological-Ethical Inquiry, page 59:

All 40 example sentences with presence

Synonyms of presence

room tone

Antonyms

Forms of presence

Noun
plural	presences
alternative form	præsence
Verb
third-person singular present	presences
present participle	presencing
past participle	presenced
past	presenced

Plural of presence: presences

Origin of presence

Through Old French presence, from Latin praesentia (“a being present”), from praesentem. Displaced native Old English andweardnes.

Words formed from presence

Phrases with presence

Words that rhyme with presence

Questions about presence

What does presence mean?: Presence means the fact or condition of being present, or of being within sight or call, or at hand.
What is presence in Hindi?: Presence in Hindi is उपस्थिति (upasthiti). See Presence meaning in Hindi.
How do you use presence in a sentence?: Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.
What part of speech is presence?: Presence can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce presence?: Presence is pronounced /ˈpɹɛzəns/ (UK).
What is the plural of presence?: The plural of presence is presences.

Words near presence in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: presence (page history and authors); presence (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); presence (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); presence (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); presence (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

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

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