English
Etymology
Theadjective is alearned borrowing fromLate Latinexistentialis,exsistentialis(“coming into or relating to existence”) +English-al(suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ formingadjectives; and formingnouns of verbal action).Existentialis,exsistentialis are derived fromLate Latinexistentia,exsistentia(“existence”) +Latin-ālis(suffix forming adjectives of relationship);[1] andexistentia,exsistentia fromLatinexistēns,exsistēns(“being, existing; appearing, emerging; becoming”) (thepresentactiveparticiple ofexistō,exsistō(“to be, exist; to appear, emerge; to become”), fromex-(prefix meaning ‘away; out’) +sistō(“to cause to stand; to place, set; to halt, stop”) (ultimately fromProto-Indo-European*steh₂-(“to stand (up)”))) +-ia(suffix formingfeminineabstract nouns).
Thenoun is derived from the adjective.
Pronunciation
Adjective
existential (comparativemoreexistential,superlativemostexistential)
- (chiefly logic, philosophy)
- Of orrelating toexistence.
- Antonym:nonexistential
1656, [attributed toPhilip King],The Surfeit. To A B C, London: […] Edw[ard] Dod […],→OCLC,§. 4,page33:The third univerſal is appetite; every perfect and imperfect living creature acquires ſuſtenance to eate and drink. Forexiſtential or ſenſual, I grant many, that there is a Sun that ſhineth, that the fire heateth, &c. yet a blind man and the Paralytick denies both.
1818,S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Essay II”, inThe Friend: A Series of Essays, […] to Aid in the Formation of Fixed Principles in Politics, Morals, and Religion, with Literary Amusements Interspersed. […], new edition, volume III, London: […] [S. Curtis] for Rest Fenner, […],→OCLC, footnote,pages96–97:[T]he essential cause of fiendish guilt, when it makes itselfexistential and peripheric—[…] I find the only explanation of a moral phænomenon not very uncommon in the last moments of condemned felons—viz. the obstinate denial, not of the main guilt, which might be accounted for by ordinary motives, but of some particular act, which had been proved beyond all possibility of doubt, and attested by the criminal's own accomplices and fellow-sufferers in their last confessions:[…]
2014 March 3,Benedict Carey, “LSD, reconsidered for therapy”, inThe New York Times[1], New York, N.Y.:The New York Times Company,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on24 August 2025:Most of the subjects had terminal cancer, and several died within a year after the trial—but not before having a mental adventure that appeared to have eased theexistential gloom of their last days.
- Concerning the very existence of something, especiallywith regard toevadingextinction.
- anexistential risk or threat
1977, Joan E. Sieber, “Development of the Concept of Anxiety”, in Joan E. Sieber;Harold F. O’Neil, Jr.;Sigmund Tobias,Anxiety, Learning, and Instruction, New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxfordshire:Routledge, published2009,→DOI,→ISBN:[Karl] Jaspers' main concern has been withexistential dread, which he regards not as a symptom of mental illness, but as a result of rejecting religious faith. He proposes that man's only way out ofexistential dread is through a "leap into faith" which reconciles man with himself and with God, and provides an experience of the absolute which transcends mere sense experience.
2015, J[ames] A. Eaton[et al.], “Trade-driven Extinctions and Near-extinctions of Avian Taxa in Sundaic Indonesia”, inForktail: Journal of Asian Ornithology, volume31, Bedford, Bedfordshire: Oriental Bird Club,→ISSN,→OCLC,page 1, column 1:Here, therefore, we seek to assemble and assess the evidence to provide an overview of how serious trade is as anexistential threat to avian taxa in Sundaic Indonesia.
2021 December 13,Molly Ball,Jeffrey Kluger, Alejandro de la Garza, “Elon Musk: Person of the Year 2021”, inTime[2], New York, N.Y.:Time Inc.,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on13 December 2021:To[Elon] Musk, his vast fortune is a mere side effect of his ability not just to see but to do things others cannot, in arenas where the stakes areexistential.
- Of anassertion, etc.:assuming orsuggesting the existence of something.
1902,William James, “Lecture I”, inThe Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London:Longmans, Green, and Co. […],→OCLC,page 4:In recent books on logic, distinction is made between two orders of inquiry concerning anything. First, what is the nature of it? how did it come about? what is its constitution, origin, and history? And second, What is its importance, meaning, or significance, now that it is once here? The answer to the one question is given in anexistential judgment or proposition. The answer to the other is aproposition of value, what the Germans call aWerthurtheil, or what we may, if we like, denominate aspiritual judgment.
- Of or relating toexistentialism(“aphilosophicalmovementemphasizing theuniqueness of eachhuman existence infreelymaking itsself-definingchoices”).
- Antonyms:nonmetaphysical,nonphenomenal,noumenal
1967,Thomas [Louis] Hanna, “Albert Camus: Man in Revolt”, in George Alfred Schrader, Jr., editor,Existential Philosophers:Kierkegaard toMerleau-Ponty, New York, N.Y.; St. Louis, Mo.:McGraw-Hill Book Company,→OCLC,page356:Someexistential thinkers are concerned with artistic expression only indirectly, that is, they are passionately interested critics and analysts of art works.
- (linguistics) Relating topart of aclause thatindicates existence (for example,there is).
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
of or relating to existence
concerning the very existence of something, especially with regard to evading extinction
of an assertion, etc.: assuming or suggesting the existence of something
of or relating to existentialism
relating to part of a clause that indicates existence
Translations to be checked
Noun
existential (pluralexistentials)
- (linguistics)Ellipsis ofexistential clause(“aclause thatindicates the existence of something”).
2014, Tuomas Huumo, Liina Lindström, “Partitives across Constructions: On the Range of Uses of the Finnish and Estonian ‘Partitive Subjects’”, in Silvia Luraghi, Tuomas Huumo, editors,Partitive Cases and Related Categories (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology), Berlin; Boston, Mass.:De Gruyter Mouton,→ISBN,→ISSN, part II (Uralic Languages), abstract,page153:In classical accounts of Finnish and Estonian grammar, the possibility of using the so-called partitive subject has been one definitional criterion for the category of existential clauses.[…] We argue thatexistentials form a radial category, with a prototype and less canonical instances, where the prototype is clearly definable but the actual borderline betweenexistentials and other clause types is fuzzy.
- (programming)Ellipsis ofexistential type(“in atype system: atype thathides theunderlyingconcrete type(s)”).
- Coordinate term:generic
Translations
References
Further reading
existential clause on Wikipedia.Wikipedia- existentialism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Raymond Williams (1983), “Existential”, inKeywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, revised American edition, New York, N.Y.:Oxford University Press, published1985,→ISBN,page123.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “existential”, inOnline Etymology Dictionary.
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, September 2025;“existential,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.