existence

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɛɡ.ˈzɪs.təns/, /ɪɡ.ˈzɪs.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.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:

     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

• (state of being): nonexistence, nothingness; See also Thesaurus:inexistence

Derived terms

• nonexistence

Related terms

• exist
• aseity
• existential

Translations

state of being, existing, or occurring

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

  Egyptian Arabic: وجود‎ m (wugūd)

• Armenian: գոյություն (hy) (goyutʿyun)
• Asturian: esistencia f
• Azerbaijani: varlıq (az), mövcudluq
• Belarusian: існава́нне n (isnavánnje), быццё n (byccjó)
• Bengali: ওজুদ (ojud), অস্তিত্ব (ôśtittô)
• 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
• 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 (tirşilik), болмыс (bolmıs)

• Khmer: អត្ថិភាព (km) (ʼatthephiəp), ^{(please verify)} ភាពគង់មាន (pʰiep kʊəŋ mien)
• Korean: 존재 (ko) (jonjae) (存在 (ko))
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: بوون‎ (ku) (bûn)

• Kyrgyz: жашоо (ky) (caşoo)
• 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
• 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) (hastī)
• Thai: การดำรงอยู่, ชีพ (chîip), ชีวะ, ชีวา, ชีวิต (th) (chii-wít)
• Turkish: varlık (tr), varoluş (tr), egzistans (tr)
• Ukrainian: існува́ння (uk) n (isnuvánnja), буття́ (uk) n (buttjá)
• Vietnamese: tồn tại (vi) (存在)

empirical reality

• Finnish: olevainen (fi)

Anagrams

• ectexines

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Czech

Etymology

Latin sisto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛɡzɪstɛnt͡sɛ]

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛntsɛ

Noun

existence f

1. existence

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, 1935–1957
• existence in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

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French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛɡ.zis.tɑ̃s/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s
• Homophone: existences
• Hyphenation: ex‧is‧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 (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).