existing

American  

[ig-zis-ting] / ɪgˈzɪs tɪŋ /

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.

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Other Word Forms

• nonexisting adjective
• unexisting adjective

Etymology

Origin of existing

exist ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. )

Explanation

If something is existing, it's real. When you make a list of existing mammals, you can't include unicorns, because they don't really exist. Something that's real can be said to exist, or to be existing. The existing laws in your state are the ones that are actually on the books, and your existing friends are the ones you really have, and who are all alive and well. The verb exist, at the root of the adjective existing, comes from the Latin existere, "come into being," from a combination of ex, "out," and sistere, "take a stand."

Example Sentences

A mixture of existing investors and employees sold the stock.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 27, 2026

Well, yes, but Overview’s satellites essentially gather sunlight in geosynchronous orbit and beam it down as near-infrared light External link to existing solar projects.

From Barron's • Apr. 27, 2026

“Space solar technology represents a transformative step forward by leveraging existing terrestrial infrastructure to deliver new, uninterrupted energy from orbit,” Nat Sahlstrom, a Meta executive overseeing energy and sustainability, said in a statement.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 27, 2026

"My sense is that during Covid, a lot of people that work from home, they had existing relationships with folk in the working environment," he says.

From BBC • Apr. 27, 2026

Both telescope and microscope produced new knowledge, but in the seventeenth century only the telescope directly endangered the existing order.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Related Words

• actual
• current
• extant