existential

02 SEP 2026

0/5 word facts discovered

existential

/ˌeɡ.zɪˈsten.ʃəl/

adjective

of, relating to, or affirming existence

having to do with existence

of, relating to, or affirming existence

Beneath her grandfather’s moth-eaten Starfleet tunic, Commander T’Var carried the existential certainty that her katra would survive every war, though she’d begun to suspect she had no soul to preserve.

Useless facts

The surprisingly eventful life of existential
Existential entered English in the mid-1600s from Late Latin existentialis, built from a word for existence. The adjective therefore spent centuries describing existence before it became inseparable from anxious philosophers, freedom, and the search for meaning.

Its range kept widening. Philosophy made it a question of human being and choice; logic gave it the symbol ∃, meaning “there exists”; grammar applied it to constructions such as there is. Everyday speech eventually produced the existential crisis and existential threat—moments when existence itself is under threat.
The Scrabble score is 18 points: E = 1, X = 8, I = 1, S = 1, T = 1, E = 1, N = 1, T = 1, I = 1, A = 1, and L = 1.
11 letters and 4 syllables.
It is pronounced /ˌeɡ.zɪˈsten.ʃəl/, with the main stress on sten.
The Oxford English Dictionary dates the adjective to the mid-1600s, long before modern existentialism.
The word comes from Late Latin existentialis, formed from existentia, “existence.”
In symbolic logic, the existential quantifier ∃ means “there exists.”
Dictionary.com selected existential as its 2019 Word of the Year.