Existence \Ex*ist"ence\, n. [Cf. F. existence.]

1. The state of existing or being; actual possession of being; continuance in being; as, the existence of body and of soul in union; the separate existence of the soul; immortal existence.

The main object of our existence. --Lubbock.

2. Continued or repeated manifestation; occurrence, as of events of any kind; as, the existence of a calamity or of a state of war.

The existence therefore, of a phenomenon, is but another word for its being perceived, or for the inferred possibility of perceiving it. --J. S. Mill.

3. That which exists; a being; a creature; an entity; as, living existences.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)