subsistence
Americannoun
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the state or fact of subsisting.
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the state or fact of existing.
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the providing of sustenance or support.
- Synonyms:
- nourishment, maintenance, survival
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means of supporting life; a living or livelihood.
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the source from which food and other items necessary to exist are obtained.
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Philosophy.
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existence, especially of an independent entity.
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the quality of having timeless or abstract existence.
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mode of existence or that by which a substance is individualized.
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noun
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the means by which one maintains life
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the act or condition of subsisting
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a thing that has real existence
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the state of being inherent
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philosophy an inferior mode of being ascribed to the references of general terms which do not in fact exist See also nonbeing
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
In any case, he says, “in modern welfare states, the struggle for subsistence has been abolished.”
The plan would entail measures such as moving to subsistence agriculture, using collective dining halls and instituting strict food rationing.
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
In addition, many present-day hunter-gatherer societies still include scavenging as part of their subsistence practices, demonstrating that it remains a practical and effective strategy.
From Science Daily
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.
