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exist

4 dictionary results for: exist

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

ex·ist

[ig-zist] Pronunciation Key

–verb (used without object)

1.	to have actual being; be: The world exists, whether you like it or not.

2.	to have life or animation; live.

3.	to continue to be or live: Belief in magic still exists.

4.	to have being in a specified place or under certain conditions; be found; occur: Hunger exists in many parts of the world.

5.	to achieve the basic needs of existence, as food and shelter: He's not living, he's merely existing.

[Origin: 1595–1605; < L ex(s)istere to exist, appear, emerge, equiv. to ex- ex-¹ + sistere to stand

]

—Related forms

ex·ist·er, noun

—Synonyms 3. survive, persist, last, endure, stay, remain.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

ex·ist (ĭg-zĭst') Pronunciation Key
intr.v. ex·ist·ed, ex·ist·ing, ex·ists

To have actual being; be real.
To have life; live: one of the worst actors that ever existed.
To live at a minimal level; subsist: barely enough income on which to exist.
To continue to be; persist: old customs that still exist in rural areas.
To be present under certain circumstances or in a specified place; occur: "Wealth and poverty exist in every demographic category" (Thomas G. Exter).

[Latin existere, exsistere, to come forth, be manifest : ex-, ex- + sistere, to stand; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

exist
verb
1.	have an existence, be extant; "Is there a God?"
2.	support oneself; "he could barely exist on such a low wage"; "Can you live on $2000 a month in New York City?"; "Many people in the world have to subsist on $1 a day"

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Exist

Ex*ist"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Existed; p. pr. & vb. n. Existing.] [L. existere, exsistere, to step out or forth, emerge, appear, exist; ex out + sistere to cause to stand, to set, put, place, stand still, fr. stare to stand: cf. F. exister. See Stand.]

1. To be as a fact and not as a mode; to have an actual or real being, whether material or spiritual.

Who now, alas! no more is missed Than if he never did exist. --Swift.

To conceive the world . . . to have existed from eternity. --South.

2. To be manifest in any manner; to continue to be; as, great evils existed in his reign.

3. To live; to have life or the functions of vitality; as, men can not exist water, nor fishes on land.

Syn: See Be.

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