existing

[ ig-zis-ting ]

adjective

1. already or previously in place, before being replaced, altered, or added to:

   Fundraising costs money, and recruiting new donors is more expensive than asking existing supporters to give a little more.

2. having actual being or life:

   The great ornithologist Alexander Wetmore, who died in 1978, allegedly declared that all existing species of birds had already been discovered.

3. occurring in a specified place or under specified conditions:

   Members of committees dealing with the behavior of intelligence services met to discuss the existing challenges and exchange best practices.

4. achieving only the basic needs of existence, as food and shelter:

   Forrest Bess was a marginally existing bait fisherman and artist who lived in a ramshackle cabin on the Gulf of Mexico.

Other Words From

• non·ex·ist·ing adjective
• un·ex·ist·ing adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of existing¹

exist ( def ) + -ing ²( def )

Example Sentences

He also wants to “replace every existing organism with a better one.”

From The Daily Beast

In short, the existing data makes fracking seem like a judgment call.

From The Daily Beast

Despite the long-existing travel ban, Americans have already been visiting Cuba by the droves.

From The Daily Beast

In The Affair, “the others” are the existing partners and even the children that Noah and Helen have, much-loved as they are.

From The Daily Beast

Every possible outcome—them together, them staying with their existing partners—seems only likely to bring misery.

From The Daily Beast

The relation existing between the balmy plant and the commerce of the world is of the strongest kind.

From Project Gutenberg

The Spaniards, indeed, feigned to regard them only as a remnant of the rebels who had joined the pre-existing brigand bands.

From Project Gutenberg

The evolution theory alleges that they were evolved, slowly, by natural processes out of previously existing matter.

From Project Gutenberg

That—and no existing institution and no current issue—is the primary concern of the present age.

From Project Gutenberg

But where there is no existing relation between the words or ideas, it is a case for Synthesis, to be taught hereafter.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• actual
• current
• extant