4 definitions found
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Existence \Ex*ist"ence\, noun [Cf. F. existence.]
1. 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.
The main object of our existence. --Lubbock.
2. 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.
3. That which exists; a being; a creature; an entity; as,
living existences.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
existence
noun
1: the state or fact of existing; "a point of view gradually
coming into being"; "laws in existence for centuries"
[syn: {being}, {beingness}] [ant: {nonexistence}, {nonbeing}]
2: everything that exists anywhere; "they study the evolution
of the universe"; "the biggest tree in existence" [syn: {universe},
{creation}, {world}, {cosmos}, {macrocosm}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
66 Moby Thesaurus words for "existence":
accessibility, actual presence, actuality, an existence,
animal spirits, animate existence, animation, availability, being,
being alive, being here, being there, birth, body, continuance,
continuation, creature, critter, duration, endurance, ens,
entelechy, entity, essence, existent, fact, having life, hereness,
immanence, immediacy, immortality, individual, individuality,
indwellingness, inherence, life, lifetime, liveliness, living,
long life, longevity, monad, object, occurrence, organism,
permanence, persistence, person, persona, personality,
physical presence, presence, quiddity, reality, something, soul,
spiritual presence, spriteliness, thereness, thing, ubiety, unit,
viability, vitality, vivacity, whereness
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
EXISTENCE, noun
A transient, horrible, fantastic dream,
Wherein is nothing yet all things do seem:
From which we're wakened by a friendly nudge
Of our bedfellow Death, and cry: "O fudge!"
|
