Ex‐ist″ (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p.Existed; p. pr. & vb. n.Existing.] [L. existere, exsistere, to step out or forth, emerge, appear, exist; ex out + sistere to cause to stand, to set, put, place, stand still, fr. stare to stand: cf. F. exister. See Stand.] 1. To be as a fact and not as a mode; to have an actual or real being, whether material or spiritual.
Who now, alas! no more is missed
Than if he never did exist. Swift.
To conceive the world... to have existed from eternity. South.
2. To be manifest in any manner; to continue to be; as, great evils existed in his reign.
3. To live; to have life or the functions of vitality; as, men can not exist in water, nor fishes on land.
Syn. — See Be.