Other forms: existing, existed, exists
To exist is to be real, to actually be in the world. Does it exist? The company no longer exists. Life exists on this planet and possibly nowhere near.
It is a state verb and is almost never continuous. There is a second, sadder sense meaning to survive with barely enough: they exist on very little, which sets exist against live as a deliberate contrast. Note the noun existence, which takes in — come into existence, in existence — and existing as an adjective, meaning current: existing customers, existing arrangements, which is one of the most useful words in a business document.
1verbexistTo be real or present in the world.
“The village no longer exists.”
synonyms: be, occur
2verbsurviveTo survive with barely enough to live on.
“They existed on soup and bread for a fortnight.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
exist is a state of being.
Latin exsistere is ex-, out, plus sistere, to stand — to stand out or step forth. To exist is to have come forward into view, which is a more active idea than merely being.
Proto-Indo-European
*stísteh₂ti
Latin
exsisto — I am, I exist, appear, arise
French
exister
English, today
exist
Built from
From French exister, from Latin exsisto (“I am, I exist, appear, arise”), from ex (“out”) + sisto (“to set, place”) (related to stō (“to stand, to be stood”)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European stísteh₂ti, from the root steh₂- (“stand”); see stand. Compare assist, consist, desist, insist, persist, resist. Cognate with Spanish existir, French exister, Italian esistere, German existieren.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA