existing
Americanadjective
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of existing
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Stories that rest on personal anecdotes always leave space for doubt, which could make the Times piece more of a Rorschach test for one’s existing politics than an election-shifting revelation.
From Slate • Jun. 5, 2026
But S&P’s move to keep profitability requirements avoids the most controversial issue, and maintains existing criteria for the most-popular U.S. index.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 5, 2026
Updated versions of SpaceX Starlink satellites have more than 100 times the bandwidth of existing versions.
From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026
Late Thursday, however, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced “there will be no changes to existing methodology for this index family.”
From MarketWatch • Jun. 5, 2026
Most such tailor-made systems modify existing alphabets, though some instead design syllabaries.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
