WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Ex*ist"
Part of Speech : v.
Etymology : [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.]
Definition : 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.

i. [imp. & p. p. Existed; p. pr. & vb. n. Existing.]
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913