exist
ex·ist/ɪɡˈzɪst/verb
exist is spelled E-X-I-S-T, 2 syllables: ex·ist. The wrong spelling people search most is excist: about 100 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 25 of all searches for the word. Exist is a verb meaning “to be; have existence; have being or reality”.
How many letters and syllables are in exist?
| Letters | 5: E-X-I-S-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: ex·ist |
| In writing | 54 times per million words; the 1,899th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, excist, about 100 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell exist?
Exist is spelled E-X-I-S-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 25 of the searches for exist in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is exist?
Exist appears 54 times per million words in written English, the 1,899th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce exist?
- /ɪɡˈzɪst/
- [ɪɡˈzɪst]
- /əɡˈzɪst/
Exist has 2 syllables, split ex·ist in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-exist.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with exist?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as exist.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: sixte.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of exist
- exists present, singular, he/she/it
- existing participle, present
- existed participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does exist mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
to be; have existence; have being or reality
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Exist in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to be:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | exister |
| German | bestehen, existieren |
| Portuguese | existir |
| Spanish | existir |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does exist come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).