subsist
Americanverb (used without object)
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subsists,
present (3rd person singular)
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subsisted,
past participle, past
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subsisting
present participle
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to exist; continue in existence.
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to remain alive; live, as on food, resources, etc.
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to have existence in, or by reason of, something.
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to reside, lie, or consist (usually followed byin ).
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Philosophy.
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to have timeless or abstract existence, as a number, relation, etc.
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to have existence, especially independent existence.
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verb (used with object)
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subsists,
present (3rd person singular)
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subsisted,
past participle, past
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subsisting
present participle
verb
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(often foll by on) to be sustained; manage to live
to subsist on milk
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to continue in existence
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(foll by in) to lie or reside by virtue (of); consist
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philosophy
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to exist as a concept or relation rather than a fact
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to be conceivable
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obsolete (tr) to provide with support
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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subsisternoun
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presubsistverb (used without object)
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supersubsistverb (used without object)
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self-subsistingadjective
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subsistentadjective
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subsistinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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subsistsimple
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subsistssimple
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have subsistedperfect
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has subsistedperfect
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am subsistingprogressive
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are subsistingprogressive
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is subsistingprogressive
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have been subsistingperfect progressive
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has been subsistingperfect progressive
Past
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subsistedsimple
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had subsistedperfect
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was subsistingprogressive
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were subsistingprogressive
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had been subsistingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of subsist
1540–50; < Latin subsistere to remain, equivalent to sub- sub- + sistere to stand, make stand; see stand
Explanation
When you subsist, you keep yourself alive. Since most airlines have stopped serving food, many travelers are forced to subsist on little packets of pretzels, even on long flights. To subsist is to feed yourself, or keep yourself going, especially when you just barely manage to do so. A hunger striker might subsist on only water for weeks, and people in developing countries often have to subsist on small rations of rice or grain. Subsist comes from the Latin word subsistere, "to stand firm," but sometimes subsisting makes people feel like they are barely standing, rather than firmly standing.
Vocabulary lists containing subsist
Vocabulary from an excerpt from "Confessions of a 30-Year-Old Gamer," by Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates
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The Awakening
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Scythe
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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.
See Examples For:
A woman who limits her exercise to Pilates will still have to subsist on very little food to get the delicate, bone-thin look these men conjure with the “Pilates girl” image.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
As Boy Scouts, the twins learned to survive in the wilderness, or at least subsist on oatmeal for two days as they did once after running out of other food.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
Those who subsist on the fringes of the Vegas tourism orbit are aware that they are in a funk but are nonetheless powerless to fix it.
From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2025
Yet the text’s unhurried recollections reflect its content: “Homework” feels leisurely as if to reflect the functional, socialist-adjacent government that allows its characters to subsist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2025
There was a time when I had willpower, when I could run 10k before breakfast and subsist for weeks on thirteen hundred calories a day.
From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
This could affect the bird's ability to survive in tidal marshes, where it subsists on saltwater and salty crustaceans, something freshwater birds are ill-adapted to.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 24, 2024
He is unemployed and subsists on the corn and beans he grows.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 20, 2023
Thus she subsists on the blood of animals, a solution that becomes increasingly unworkable as her hunger increases.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 13, 2023
He is sleep-deprived because the lights in his cell are kept on all the time, and he subsists mostly on a diet of stale tortillas, he told them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2022
The food this family subsists on is like nothing I’ve ever eaten before.
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
Cramped inside vessels overladen with precious cargo, crewmembers subsisted on a miserable diet of hardtack, an unleavened bread, and salted meat and fish that routinely spoiled and left many gravely ill.
From Barron's ● Apr. 28, 2026
The pet-food company Evermore is extolling the benefits of sous vide–cooked turkey, lamb, chicken and beef; the founders are so passionate about these “human grade” recipes that they personally subsisted on them for 31 days.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 28, 2026
In the end the team - who subsisted on water, chocolate and sattu, a mixture of chickpea, barley and wheat flour - retrieved four bodies.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2024
He has told more than one interviewer that, at times during his early climbing days, he was so broke he subsisted on canned cat food because “it was better than dog food.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2024
Robert started to reassure her, asserting that he had known a lady who had subsisted upon nougat during the entire—but seeing the color mount into Mrs. Pontellier’s face he checked himself and changed the subject.
From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin
Maekar recoils at the thought of a child of royal birth subsisting on salted beef.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2026
Less than two years ago, the W.N.B.A. star Brittney Griner was starting her nine-year sentence in a penal colony in Russia, sewing uniforms for the Russian military and subsisting on spoiled food.
From New York Times ● May 2, 2024
Chavez, who had lost 35 pounds after subsisting only on water, was too weak to speak.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2024
With Gaza’s economy decimated, few Palestinians have regular incomes and most are either depleting their savings or subsisting on handouts.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 6, 2024
Pollard spent his days aboard Acey’s animals and his nights in a stall, sandwiched between two horses, subsisting on his books and irregular meals from the track kitchen.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
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.
