existence
/ɛɡˈzɪs.təns/noun
existence is spelled E-X-I-S-T-E-N-C-E. The wrong spelling people search most is existance: about 490 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Existence is a noun meaning “The state of being, existing, or occurring; beinghood”. The plural of existence is existences.
How many letters and syllables are in existence?
| Letters | 9: E-X-I-S-T-E-N-C-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 35 times per million words; the 2,725th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, existance, about 490 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 existence?
Existence is spelled E-X-I-S-T-E-N-C-E. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for existence 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 existence?
Existence appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,725th 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 existence?
- US /ɛɡˈzɪs.təns/
- US /ɪɡˈzɪs.təns/
Existence has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-existence.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with existence?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as existence from its last stressed vowel (/ɪstəns/):
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 existence
- existences plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does existence mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The state of being, existing, or occurring; beinghood.
In order to destroy evil, we must first acknowledge its existence.
- 2
Empirical reality; the substance of the physical universe. (Dictionary of Philosophy; 1968)
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Existence in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense state of being, existing, or occurring:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | existence |
| German | Existenz, Dasein, Sein |
| Portuguese | existência |
| Spanish | existencia |
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 existence come from?
From Middle English existence, from Old French existence, from Late Latin existentia (“existence”), from existēns, from existō, exsistō (“I am, I exist”), 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”). Cognate with Spanish existencia, French existence, German Existenz. Displaced native Old English understandennes (literally, "understanden-ness"). Morphologically exist + -ence.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).