existing

American  

[ig-zis-ting] / ɪgˈzɪs tɪŋ /

adjective

1. already or previously in place, before being replaced, altered, or added to.

   Fundraising costs money, and recruiting new donors is more expensive than asking existing supporters to give a little more.

2. having actual being or life.

   The great ornithologist Alexander Wetmore, who died in 1978, allegedly declared that all existing species of birds had already been discovered.

3. occurring in a specified place or under specified conditions.

   Members of committees dealing with the behavior of intelligence services met to discuss the existing challenges and exchange best practices.

4. achieving only the basic needs of existence, as food and shelter.

   Forrest Bess was a marginally existing bait fisherman and artist who lived in a ramshackle cabin on the Gulf of Mexico.

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Other Word Forms

• nonexisting adjective
• unexisting adjective

Etymology

Origin of existing

exist ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

Pollution is particularly dangerous to those with existing health problems, the elderly and children.

From Barron's • Apr. 3, 2026

Reverse-engineering existing technology yielded “the Toyota Corolla of drones”—cheap, easy to manufacture and devastatingly effective.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

Light offers significantly more available bandwidth, avoids interference with existing wireless systems, and can be directed with high precision.

From Science Daily • Apr. 2, 2026

“Would Apple continue to pay Starlink hundreds of millions of dollars per year to support connectivity on existing iPhones?”

From MarketWatch • Apr. 2, 2026

Both telescope and microscope produced new knowledge, but in the seventeenth century only the telescope directly endangered the existing order.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Related Words

• actual
• current
• extant