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
- nonexisting adjective
- unexisting adjective
Etymology
Origin of existing
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.
AI developers are more focused on earning subscription revenue and adding agentic capabilities to existing offerings, thus they have no incentive to back an open-source option, Zhang adds.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
"We will prioritise a multi-year programme to bring existing facilities up to a safe, modern standard, with transparent national reporting on progress," said a spokesman.
From BBC • Apr. 2, 2026
Light offers significantly more available bandwidth, avoids interference with existing wireless systems, and can be directed with high precision.
From Science Daily • Apr. 2, 2026
“Would Apple continue to pay Starlink hundreds of millions of dollars per year to support connectivity on existing iPhones?”
From MarketWatch • Apr. 2, 2026
The pain emanating from this man—I want to apologize for ever turning up at this man’s door, for ever coming to find him here and demanding he tell me about his schedule, for ever existing.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
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.
