Exist \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 water, nor fishes on land.

Syn: See Be.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)