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Synonyms

subsistence

American  
[suhb-sis-tuhns] / səbˈsɪs təns /

noun

  1. the state or fact of subsisting.

  2. the state or fact of existing.

  3. the providing of sustenance or support.

    Synonyms:
    nourishment, maintenance, survival

  4. means of supporting life; a living or livelihood.

  5. the source from which food and other items necessary to exist are obtained.

  6. Philosophy.

    1. existence, especially of an independent entity.

    2. the quality of having timeless or abstract existence.

    3. mode of existence or that by which a substance is individualized.

subsistence British  
/ səbˈsɪstəns /

noun

  1. the means by which one maintains life

  2. the act or condition of subsisting

  3. a thing that has real existence

  4. the state of being inherent

  5. philosophy an inferior mode of being ascribed to the references of general terms which do not in fact exist See also nonbeing

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • intersubsistence noun
  • nonsubsistence noun
  • presubsistence noun
  • self-subsistence noun

Etymology

Origin of subsistence

1400–50; late Middle English < Late Latin subsistentia; subsist, -ence

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.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond described his childhood subsistence on food stamps, free school lunches and surplus government cheese.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 22, 2026

Greenland's 57,000-strong population -- nearly 90 percent indigenous Inuit people -- has long traditions of hunting and fishing as the primary means of subsistence.

From Barron's • Jan. 21, 2026

The evidence suggests people are driven into subsistence work by necessity, not drawn into better-quality jobs by a stronger economy.

From BBC • Dec. 22, 2025

In the South, entire families worked long hours for subsistence wages in company-owned villages.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 30, 2025

Most of them only see the ungiving soil from which a man must wrestle his subsistence and the barriers that shut him out from the world.

From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson

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.