EXIST', verb intransitive egzist'. [Latin existo; ex and sisto, or more directly from Gr. to set, place or fix; Latin sto, to stand. The primary sense is to set, fix or be fixed, whence the sense of permanence, continuance.]

1. To be; to have an essence or real being; applicable to matter or body, and to spiritual substances. A supreme being and first cause of all other beings must have existed from eternity, for no being can have created himself.

2. To live; to have life or animation. Men cannot exist in water, nor fishes on land.

3. To remain; to endure; to continue in being. How long shall national enmities exist?