Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In an existential manner; in an existing state; actually.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In an existential manner

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The latter, especially, can scarcely be expected to to surrender to the the view that its obstructionism, however maddening, around a program that nowhere close to weaponized, is an exponentially -- not to mention "existentially" -- greater threat than a state that has had nukes for years and refuses to admit as much.

    Russ Wellen: How Does Staying Mum on Israel's Nukes Help the Peace Process? Russ Wellen 2010

  • The latter, especially, can scarcely be expected to to surrender to the the view that its obstructionism, however maddening, around a program that nowhere close to weaponized, is an exponentially -- not to mention "existentially" -- greater threat than a state that has had nukes for years and refuses to admit as much.

    Russ Wellen: How Does Staying Mum on Israel's Nukes Help the Peace Process? Russ Wellen 2010

  • The latter, especially, can scarcely be expected to to surrender to the the view that its obstructionism, however maddening, around a program that nowhere close to weaponized, is an exponentially -- not to mention "existentially" -- greater threat than a state that has had nukes for years and refuses to admit as much.

    Russ Wellen: How Does Staying Mum on Israel's Nukes Help the Peace Process? Russ Wellen 2010

  • The latter, especially, can scarcely be expected to to surrender to the the view that its obstructionism, however maddening, around a program that nowhere close to weaponized, is an exponentially -- not to mention "existentially" -- greater threat than a state that has had nukes for years and refuses to admit as much.

    Russ Wellen: How Does Staying Mum on Israel's Nukes Help the Peace Process? Russ Wellen 2010

  • Ich-Erzähler [first-person narrator] who recalls the event) is a matrix from which both states spring and on which they remain existentially dependent.

    Kafka and the Coincidence of Opposites 2007

  • While the American people broadly voted for peace and withdrawal from Bush's disastrous Iraq war, the singular and only faction in the US that is "existentially" threatened by withdrawal from the Iraq war is precisely the elite global corporate Empire of 'old economy 'oily, weapons and financial interests that Bush and Cheney represent.

    Cheney incites fear of "existential" threat on TV --- but existential for whom? 2007

  • The multiple levels of representation and speculation-the fleeting glimpses of the jogging Jims, Frank Fitts 'erroneous conclusion that his son is having sex with Kevin Spacey's Lester Burnham, Mr. Spacey's delivery of the line "I'm sorry, you got the wrong idea" when Frank kisses Lester-serve to elevate homosexuality from an individual affective inclination and behavioral choice to some kind of existentially illuminating cultural phenomenon.

    Six Inches Under 2004

  • The multiple levels of representation and speculation-the fleeting glimpses of the jogging Jims, Frank Fitts 'erroneous conclusion that his son is having sex with Kevin Spacey's Lester Burnham, Mr. Spacey's delivery of the line "I'm sorry, you got the wrong idea" when Frank kisses Lester-serve to elevate homosexuality from an individual affective inclination and behavioral choice to some kind of existentially illuminating cultural phenomenon.

    Six Inches Under 2004

  • Actions which are "bad" are not seen as existentially unethical because they cause harm to individuals but rather as essentially immoral because they "disrupt" the social/natural/divine order.

    Archive 2009-08-01 Hal Duncan 2009

  • Israel-haters either underestimate or pretend not to realize that Israelis are genuinely existentially scared.

    Wonk Room » Netanyahu: Arabs And Jews Unite…Against The Persians 2009

Comments

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  • Why is it that no one loves this word, it's existentially baffling?

    February 10, 2012