Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Existence"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.
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) 1.7 (wn)
existence
n 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}]
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