nonexistence

American  

[non-ig-zis-tuhns] / ˌnɒn ɪgˈzɪs təns /

noun

1. absence of existence.

2. a thing that has no existence.

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Other Word Forms

• nonexistent
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of nonexistence

First recorded in 1640–50; non- + existence

Example Sentences

It was inevitable that Royce should have been at home only in this circle of Protestant and German intuitions; a more refined existence would have seemed to him to elude moral experience.

From Character and Opinion in the United States by Santayana, George

This rarefied, refined existence seemed to have no end, nor stint, nor principle of decay in it.

From Winterslow Essays and Characters Written There by Hazlitt, William

We drink the air before us, and borrow a more refined existence from objects that hover on the brink of nothing.

From Table Talk Essays on Men and Manners by Hazlitt, William

And he was the son of a poet with an admirable gift of individualising, of etherealising the commonplace; of making touching, delicate, fascinating the most hopeless conventions of the so-called refined existence.

From Chance A Tale in Two Parts by Conrad, Joseph

And he was the son of a poet with an admirable gift of individualising, of etherealizing the common-place; of making touching, delicate, fascinating the most hopeless conventions of the, so-called, refined existence.

From Chance A Tale in Two Parts by Conrad, Joseph