EXISTENCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does existence mean? 

• EXISTENCE (noun)
  The noun EXISTENCE has 2 senses:

1. the state or fact of existing

2. everything that exists anywhere

  Familiarity information: EXISTENCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXISTENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state or fact of existing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

being; beingness; existence; face of the earth

Context example:

he appeared on the face of the earth one day

Hypernyms ("existence" is a kind of...):

state (the way something is with respect to its main attributes)

Attribute:

existent; existing (having existence or being or actuality)

nonexistent (not having existence or being or actuality)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "existence"):

actuality (the state of actually existing objectively)

eternity; timeless existence; timelessness (a state of eternal existence believed in some religions to characterize the afterlife)

preexistence (existing in a former state or previous to something else)

coexistence (existing peacefully together)

subsistence (the state of existing in reality; having substance)

presence (the state of being present; current existence)

life (the course of existence of an individual; the actions and events that occur in living)

aliveness; animation; life; living (the condition of living or the state of being alive)

life (a characteristic state or mode of living)

transcendence; transcendency (a state of being or existence above and beyond the limits of material experience)

possibility; possibleness (capability of existing or happening or being true)

Antonym:

nonexistence (the state of not existing)

Derivation:

exist (have an existence, be extant)

existent (presently existing in fact and not merely potential or possible)

existent (having existence or being or actuality)

existent (being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verified existence; not illusory)

existential (relating to or dealing with existence (especially with human existence))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Everything that exists anywhere

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

cosmos; creation; existence; macrocosm; universe; world

Context example:

the biggest tree in existence

Hypernyms ("existence" is a kind of...):

natural object (an object occurring naturally; not made by man)

Meronyms (parts of "existence"):

celestial body; heavenly body (natural objects visible in the sky)

estraterrestrial body; extraterrestrial object (a natural object existing outside the earth and outside the earth's atmosphere)

Meronyms (members of "existence"):

extragalactic nebula; galaxy ((astronomy) a collection of star systems; any of the billions of systems each having many stars and nebulae and dust)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "existence"):

closed universe ((cosmology) a universe that is spatially closed and in which there is sufficient matter to halt the expansion that began with the big bang; the visible matter is only 10 percent of the matter required for closure but there may be large amounts of dark matter)

natural order (the physical universe considered as an orderly system subject to natural (not human or supernatural) laws)

nature (the natural physical world including plants and animals and landscapes etc.)

 Context examples 

The silent gliding on of my existence—the unseen, unfelt progress of my life—from childhood up to youth!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The method enabled scientists to ascertain Haumea's main characteristics, such as size, shape, density, as well as the existence of the ring.

(Brazil astronomers discover ring around dwarf planet near Pluto, Agência Brasil)

While the proposed planet's existence may eventually be confirmed by other means, mission navigators have observed no unexplained deviations in the spacecraft's orbit since its arrival there in 2004.

(Saturn Spacecraft Not Affected by Hypothetical Planet 9, NASA)

Microbes eking out an existence on granite are also more likely to have genes linked with mobility, a trait that allows them to seek out better micro-environments when necessary.

(Tales from the crypt: Life after death in a graveyard, National Science Foundation)

Exposed water-ice is rare on Ceres, but the low density of Ceres, the impact-generated flows and the very existence of Ahuna Mons suggest that Ceres' crust does contain a significant component of water-ice.

(Ceres' Geological Activity, Ice Revealed in New Research, NASA)

A few jokes and snatches of humorous verse, sold to the New York weeklies, made existence barely possible for him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Thus it was he learned the law, and ere he left the domain of the chickens, he had learned to ignore their existence.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

At the beginning of Mars’ existence and up until 3.5 billion years ago, the red planet hosted a global magnetic field.

(Blue Aurorae in Mars’ Sky Visible to the Naked Eye, NASA)

One instant had altered the whole conditions of our existence.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They have also posited the existence of a "dark energy" that is more powerful than gravitational attraction.

(There May Be No Dark Matter, Dark Energy in Universe, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)