existence
/ɛɡˈzɪs.təns/ noun
Forms existences
- noun (Ontology) The state of being, existing, or occurring; beinghood. “In order to destroy evil, we must first acknowledge its existence.”
- noun Empirical reality; the substance of the physical universe. (Dictionary of Philosophy; 1968)
Synonyms
presence being beinghood beingness dasein hereness subsistence universe creation world cosmos macrocosm
Antonyms
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. Displaced native Old English understandennes (literally, "understanden-ness").
Morphologically exist + -ence.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The state of existing or being; actual possession of being; continuance in being; as, the existence of body and of soul in union; the separate existence of the soul; immortal existence.
- noun Continued or repeated manifestation; occurrence, as of events of any kind; as, the existence of a calamity or of a state of war. The existence therefore, of a phenomenon, is but another word for its being perceived, or for the inferred possibility of perceiving it. J. S. Mill.
Etymology [Cf. F. existence.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “existence”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details