Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell existence

hear itex·ist·ence/ɪɡ'zɪstəns/nounSchwa and roots

What it means: The state of being real or having reality.

In a sentence: Dinosaurs once roamed the earth, but now their existence is a mystery.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as existense or existance.

Same family: existing, existent, existential, coexist, existentialism. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Existence” comes from Latin "existentia," based on "existere," meaning "to step out" or "to emerge." Philosophers have used this word for centuries when debating what it really means for something to "be" at all.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

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