existential
/ˌɛɡzɪˈstɛn(t)ʃəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.47 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
5
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of or relating to existentialism (“a philosophical movement emphasizing the uniqueness of each human existence in freely making its self-defining choices”).
noun
Ellipsis of existential type (“in a type system: a type that hides the underlying concrete type(s)”).
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "an existential risk or threat"
- "[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."
Etymology
The adjective is a learned borrowing from Late Latin existentiālis, exsistentiālis (“coming into or relating to existence”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives; and forming nouns of verbal action). Existentiālis, exsistentiālis are derived from Late Latin existentia, exsistentia (“existence”) + Latin -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship); and existentia, exsistentia from Latin existēns, exsistēns (“being, existing; appearing, emerging; becoming”) (the present active participle of existō, exsistō (“to be, exist; to appear, emerge; to become”), from ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + sistō (“to cause to stand; to place, set; to halt, stop”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”))) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). The noun is derived from the adjective.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌɛɡzɪˈstɛn(t)ʃəl/
- British English: /ˌɛɡzɪˈstɛnʃl̩/