existence
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Existence \Ex*ist"ence\, n. [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.
[1913 Webster]
The main object of our existence. --Lubbock.
[1913 Webster]
2. Continued or repeated manifestation; occurrence, as of
events of any kind; as, the existence of a calamity or of
a state of war.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
3. That which exists; a being; a creature; an entity; as,
living existences.
[1913 Webster]
from
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906)
EXISTENCE, n.
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!"
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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
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