nonexistent
Britishadjective
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not having being or existence
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not present under specified conditions or in a specified place
Other Word Forms
Explanation
Something that's nonexistent doesn't really exist. When your cat hisses at her reflection in the mirror, she's attacking a nonexistent enemy. The adjective nonexistent describes something that's not real. Your nonexistent problems are only in your imagination, for example, and you may pretend to answer a nonexistent phone call to avoid an awkward conversation with an acquaintance at the post office. The word existent is at the heart of nonexistent, with its root of existence. They all come from the Latin word exsistere, "to come into being, to appear, or to be."
Vocabulary lists containing nonexistent
Zilch, Zip, Nada: Words For Nothing
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Nobody's Home: Synonyms For "Absent"
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The Phantom Tollbooth
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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.
Tishman Speyer explained that the area "has one of the lowest office availability rates in Manhattan", adding: "Construction of new office supply in the neighbourhood has been virtually nonexistent for decades."
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
A value closer to minus 1 means a perfect negative correlation between oil prices and stocks, while a number closer to 0 shows the relationship is very weak or even nonexistent.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
Among the items found in searches of Cerimedo-linked properties, authorities say, was a business card listing him as Paz’s “chief adviser” — a nonexistent post.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
There are genuinely hard things that are still beyond the grasp of AI, even if you hold its nonexistent hands.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
A bellhop in a bright yellow-and-white Hawaiian shirt offers to retrieve our nonexistent luggage.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
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.
