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 Word Forms

• nonexisting adjective
• unexisting adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of existing¹

exist ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

And it means that every existing banknote matters more than ever - no matter how tattered.

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He claimed to write plays as much to discover what he really thought as to explore his existing ideas.

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By contrast, Britain’s BAE Systems has yet to open an extension to an existing shell factory that it announced in early 2022.

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"You repurpose existing skills -- using an oven, measuring ingredients, kneading dough -- and combine them with new ones, like whipping batter and making frosting, to create something entirely different."

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To conduct the investigation, the research team combined data from seven existing studies, three of which had not previously been published.

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Related Words

• actual 
• current 
• extant