existence

English

Etymology

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.

Morphologically exist +‎ -ence.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɛɡˈzɪs.təns/, /ɪɡˈzɪs.təns/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

existence (countable and uncountable, plural existences)

1. The state of being, existing, or occurring; beinghood.

   Synonym: presence

   In order to destroy evil, we must first acknowledge its 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:

     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.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.

   • 2012 March-April, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146:

     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.

   • 2020 June 29, Wendi, “The Loyal General Yue Fei”, in Minghui‎^[1]:

     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.”

2. Empirical reality; the substance of the physical universe. (Dictionary of Philosophy; 1968)

Synonyms

• (state of being): See also Thesaurus:existence

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “state of being”): nonexistence, nothingness; See also Thesaurus:inexistence

Derived terms

• bane of someone's existence
• co-existence
• in existence
• non-existence
• nonexistence
• self-existence
• three marks of existence
• timeless existence

 

Related terms

• exist
• aseity
• existential

Translations

state of being, existing, or occurring

• Albanian: qenie (sq) f, ekzistencë (sq) f
• Arabic: وُجُود (ar) m (wujūd), كَيْنُونَة f (kaynūna)

  Egyptian Arabic: وجود m (wugūd)

• Armenian: գոյություն (hy) (goyutʻyun)
• Asturian: esistencia f
• Azerbaijani: varlıq (az), mövcudluq
• Belarusian: існава́нне n (isnavánnje), быццё n (byccjó)
• Bengali: অস্তিত্ব (bn) (ostitto), ওজুদ (bn) (ōjud)
• Bulgarian: съществу́ване (bg) n (sǎštestvúvane), битие (bg) n (bitie)
• Burmese: ဇာတ် (my) (jat)
• Catalan: existència (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 存在 (cyun⁴ zoi⁶)

  Mandarin: 存在 (zh) (cúnzài)

• Czech: existence (cs) f, bytí (cs) n
• Danish: eksistens, tilværelse
• Dutch: bestaan (nl) n, voorkomen (nl) n
• Esperanto: ekzistado, ekzisto
• Estonian: olemasolu
• Fala: ixistencia f (Lagarteiru), existencia f (Mañegu, Valverdeñu)
• Finnish: olemassaolo (fi)
• French: existence (fr) f
• Galician: existencia (gl) f
• Georgian: არსებობა (arseboba)
• German: Existenz (de) f, Dasein (de) n, Sein (de) n
• Greek: ύπαρξη (el) (ýparxi)
• Gujarati: અસ્તિત્વ (astitva)
• Hebrew: קִיּוּם m (kiyúm)
• Hindi: अस्तित्व (hi) m (astitva), भाव (hi) m (bhāv)
• Hungarian: lét (hu), létezés (hu)
• Icelandic: tilvera (is) f
• Indonesian: eksistensi (id), adanya, keberadaan
• Interlingua: existentia
• Italian: esistenza (it) f
• Japanese: 存在 (ja) (そんざい, sonzaí)
• Kazakh: тіршілік (tırşılık), болмыс (bolmys)
• Khmer: អត្ថិភាព (km) (ʼatthephiəp), ^{(please verify)} ភាពគង់មាន (pʰiep kʊəŋ mien)
• Korean: 존재(存在) (ko) (jonjae)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: بوون (bûn)

• Kyrgyz: жашоо (ky) (jaşoo)
• Lao: ຊີບ (sīp), ຊີວະ (sī wa), ຊີວັງ, ຊີວາລັຍ (sī wā lai), ຊີວິດ (lo) (sī wit), ພະວາພົບ (pha wā phop), ພາວະ (phā wa)
• Latin: exsistentia f
• Latvian: eksistence f, pastāvēšana f, esamība (lv) f
• Lithuanian: egzistavimas, syn: buvimas, egzistencija f
• Macedonian: постоење n (postoenje), битие n (bitie)
• Maltese: eżistenza f
• Maori: tauoranga, kaiaotanga
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari: вуй (vuj)

• Norman: beays m
• Norwegian: eksistens m, tilværelse (no) m
• Occitan: existéncia (oc) f
• Persian: هستی (fa) (hasti), بوش (fa) (boveš)
• Polish: egzystencja (pl) f, istnienie (pl) n
• Portuguese: existência (pt) f
• Romanian: existență (ro) f
• Russian: существова́ние (ru) n (suščestvovánije), бытие́ (ru) n (bytijé) (philosophical, poetical), экзисте́нция (ru) f (ekzistɛ́ncija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: постојање n, битисање n, егзистенција f

  Roman: postojanje (sh) n, bitisanje n, egzistencija (sh) f

• Slovak: existencia f, bytie (sk) n
• Slovene: obstoj m, bitje (sl) n
• Spanish: existencia (es) f
• Swedish: existens (sv) c, tillvaro (sv) c
• Tagalog: kamayhan, kamayrunan
• Tajik: ҳастӣ (tg) (hasti)
• Thai: การดำรงอยู่, ชีพ (th) (chîip), ชีวะ (th), ชีวา, ชีวิต (th) (chii-wít)
• Turkish: varlık (tr), varoluş (tr), egzistans (tr)
• Ukrainian: існува́ння (uk) n (isnuvánnja), буття́ (uk) n (buttjá)
• Uzbek: mavjudlik (uz)
• Vietnamese: tồn tại (vi) (存在)
• Yiddish: עקסיסטענץ f (eksistents)

empirical reality

• Finnish: olevainen (fi)

Anagrams

• ectexines

Czech

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin existentia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛɡzɪstɛnt͡sɛ]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: exi‧s‧ten‧ce
• Rhymes: -ɛntsɛ

Noun

existence f

1. existence

Declension

Declension of existence (soft feminine)

	singular	plural
nominative	existence	existence
genitive	existence	existencí
dative	existenci	existencím
accusative	existenci	existence
vocative	existence	existence
locative	existenci	existencích
instrumental	existencí	existencemi

Related terms

Related terms

• asistence
• asistent
• asistovat
• existenciální
• existencialismus
• existencialista
• existencialistický
• existenční
• existovat
• koexistence
• koexistovat
• konzistence
• konzistentní
• perzistence
• perzistentní
• perzistovat
• rezistence
• rezistor
• subsistence
• tranzistor

Further reading

• “existence”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “existence”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “existence”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech)

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French existence, from Late Latin existentia (“existence”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛɡ.zis.tɑ̃s/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s
• Homophone: existences
• Hyphenation: exis‧tence

Noun

existence f (plural existences)

1. existence
2. life

   Synonym: vie

Related terms

• exister
• existentiel

Further reading

• “existence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.