struggle for existence

American  

noun

1. the competition in nature among organisms of a population to maintain themselves in a given environment and to survive to reproduce others of their kind.

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struggle for existence British  

noun

1. (not in technical usage) competition between organisms of a population, esp as a factor in the evolution of plants and animals See also natural selection

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Etymology

Origin of struggle for existence

First recorded in 1820–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

struggle for existence

These distractions keep us from confronting reality: facilitation may be real, but so is the Darwinian struggle for existence.

From Scientific American ● Jul. 19, 2021

Casa 0101, a community resource since 2002, faces its own struggle for existence, but with support from an ongoing fundraising campaign, programming is scheduled into July, Lopez says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2018

Darwin described this as the struggle for existence.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2018

Adrienne Rich said: “A poem can’t free us from the struggle for existence, but it can uncover desires and appetites buried under the accumulating emergencies of life.”

From The Guardian ● Nov. 10, 2016

What happens, instead, is a struggle for existence, with slight variations in the birds giving some advantages over others.

From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman