SUBSISTENCE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does subsistence mean? 

• SUBSISTENCE (noun)
  The noun SUBSISTENCE has 3 senses:

1. minimal (or marginal) resources for subsisting

2. a means of surviving

3. the state of existing in reality; having substance

  Familiarity information: SUBSISTENCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUBSISTENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Minimal (or marginal) resources for subsisting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Context example:

social security provided only a bare subsistence

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

bread and butter; keep; livelihood; living; support; sustenance (the financial means whereby one lives)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A means of surviving

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

farming is a hard means of subsistence

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

endurance; survival (a state of surviving; remaining alive)

Derivation:

subsist (support oneself)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The state of existing in reality; having substance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

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

being; beingness; existence; face of the earth (the state or fact of existing)

 Context examples 

“The subsistence of my family, ma'am,” returned Mr. Micawber, “trembles in the balance. My employer—”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They concluded that the Arctic tundra is a major sink for mercury, a toxin that affects the neurological and immune systems of Arctic wildlife and is passed along to indigenous peoples who rely on subsistence hunting for their food.

(Study finds mercury levels in Arctic soils 5 times higher than temperate regions, National Science Foundation)

To provide for her otherwise was out of Colonel Campbell's power; for though his income, by pay and appointments, was handsome, his fortune was moderate and must be all his daughter's; but, by giving her an education, he hoped to be supplying the means of respectable subsistence hereafter.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Her father grew worse; her time was more entirely occupied in attending him; her means of subsistence decreased; and in the tenth month her father died in her arms, leaving her an orphan and a beggar.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The State Environment Secretariat (SEMA) has published a list of 331 species of amphibians, birds, mammals, reptiles, continental invertebrates, fish, marine invertebrates, and the so-called social interest species—those exploited by traditional communities for sustainable use or subsistence.

(Over 300 animal species threatened in Bahia, Agência Brasil)

I explained with tolerable firmness, that I really did not know where my means of subsistence were to come from, unless I could earn them for myself.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)