Pronunciations (2)
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/ˌɛɡzɪˈstɛnʃl̩/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˌɛɡzɪˈstɛn(t)ʃəl/
Pronunciation notes
- Canada
- General-American
Adjective
Of or relating to existence.
- Antonyms
- Examples
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More examples (3)
The third univerſal is appetite; every perfect and imperfect living creature acquires ſuſtenance to eate and drink. For exiſtential or ſenſual, I grant many, that there is a Sun that ſhineth, that the fire heateth, &c. yet a blind man and the Paralytick denies both.
[T]he essential cause of fiendish guilt, when it makes itself existential and peripheric— […] I find the only explanation of a moral phænomenon not very uncommon in the last moments of condemned felons—viz. the obstinate denial, not of the main guilt, which might be accounted for by ordinary motives, but of some particular act, which had been proved beyond all possibility of doubt, and attested by the criminal's own accomplices and fellow-sufferers in their last confessions: […]
Most of the subjects had terminal cancer, and several died within a year after the trial—but not before having a mental adventure that appeared to have eased the existential gloom of their last days.
Of or relating to existence. Concerning the very existence of something, especially with regard to evading extinction.
- Examples
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an existential risk or threat
More examples (3)
[Karl] Jaspers' main concern has been with existential dread, which he regards not as a symptom of mental illness, but as a result of rejecting religious faith. He proposes that man's only way out of existential dread is through a "leap into faith" which reconciles man with himself and with God, and provides an experience of the absolute which transcends mere sense experience.
Here, therefore, we seek to assemble and assess the evidence to provide an overview of how serious trade is as an existential threat to avian taxa in Sundaic Indonesia.
To [Elon] Musk, his vast fortune is a mere side effect of his ability not just to see but to do things others cannot, in arenas where the stakes are existential.
Of or relating to existence. Of an assertion, etc.: assuming or suggesting the existence of something.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
In recent books on logic, distinction is made between two orders of inquiry concerning anything. First, what is the nature of it? how did it come about? what is its constitution, origin, and history? And second, What is its importance, meaning, or significance, now that it is once here? The answer to the one question is given in an existential judgment or proposition. The answer to the other is a proposition of value, what the Germans call a Werthurtheil, or what we may, if we like, denominate a spiritual judgment.
Of or relating to existentialism (“a philosophical movement emphasizing the uniqueness of each human existence in freely making its self-defining choices”).
- Examples
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Some existential thinkers are concerned with artistic expression only indirectly, that is, they are passionately interested critics and analysts of art works.
Relating to part of a clause that indicates existence (for example, there is).
Adjective
derived from experience or the experience of existence
- Synonyms
of or as conceived by existentialism
- Examples
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an existential moment of choice
relating to or dealing with existence (especially with human existence)