Other forms: existences
Existence is the state of being real at all. Come into existence, the existence of life, prove its existence.
It is a plain philosophical word and a common practical one: deny the existence of, in existence, the oldest in existence. It also means a way of living, usually a hard one: a miserable existence, scratch out an existence. Note existential, which means to do with existence and, in loose modern use, threatening the survival of something — an existential threat; and existentialism, the twentieth-century philosophy about choosing your own meaning.
1nounexistenceThe state of being real.
“Nobody has proved the existence of the ninth planet.”
2nounlivingA way of living.
“It was a hand-to-mouth existence for about six years.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
existence is a state of being.
Latin existentia comes from existere — ex-, out, plus sistere, to stand. To exist is to stand out, to emerge into being, which makes the word a picture of something stepping forward from nothing.
Proto-Indo-European
*stísteh₂ti
Latin
existentia — existence
Old French
existence
Middle English
existence
English, today
existence
Built from
From Middle English existence, from Old French existence, from Latin existentia (“existence”), from existēns, from exsisto (“I am, I exist”), 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”). Cognate with Spanish existencia, French existence, German Existenz. Displaced native Old English understandennes (literally, "understanden-ness"). Morphologically exist + ence.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA