Exist

//ɛɡˈzɪst// verb

verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    to be; have existence; have being or reality intransitive, stative

    "Cognitive dissonance exists when a person possesses two cognitions, one of which is contradictory to the other"

  2. 2
    have an existence, be extant wordnet
  3. 3
    support oneself wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bebeabideabide inbe a thingbe alive

Example

More examples

"I think it is good that books still exist, but they do make me sleepy."

Etymology

From French exister, from Latin existō, exsistō (“I am, I exist, appear, arise”), from ex (“out”) + sistere (“to set, place”) (related to stare (“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.

Related phrases

there existbeing alivebeing personbeing thereexits anagrami amis nowphysical beingphysical manifestationphysical presenceresist andstate of

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.