noun
Meaning 1
Real being; existence.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
subsistence
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/səbˈsɪstəns/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɪstəns
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CMU ARPABET: S AH0 B S IH1 S T AH0 N S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
The act of maintaining oneself at a minimum level.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
Inherency.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Examples
- the subsistence of qualities in bodies
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
Something (food, water, money, etc.) that is required to stay alive.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
Embodiment or personification or hypostasis of an underlying principle or quality.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Topics: lifestyle, religion, theology
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
minimal (or marginal) resources for subsisting
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- social security provided only a bare subsistence
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: support, keep, livelihood, living, bread and butter, sustenance
noun
Meaning 7
the state of existing in reality; having substance
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: being, beingness, existence
noun
Meaning 8
a means of surviving
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- farming is a hard means of subsistence
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: survival, endurance
History
Etymology
From Middle English subsistence; partly from Middle French subsistence (modern French subsistance) and partly from its etymon Late Latin subsistentia (“substance, reality, in Medieval Latin also stability”), from Latin subsistēns, present participle of subsistere (“to continue, subsist”). Perhaps also partly from subsist + -ence.
Across languages
Translations
21 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Arabic: كَفَاف (kafāf) — means of support
- Bulgarian: препитание (prepitanie) — means of support
- Catalan: subsistència — means of support
- Czech: obživa — means of support
- German: Auskommen — means of support
- German: Lebensunterhalt — means of support
- Hindi: आजीविका (ājīvikā) — means of support
- Hindi: जीविका (jīvikā) — means of support
- Interlingua: subsistentia — means of support
- Irish: cothabháil — means of support
- Portuguese: subsistência — means of support
- Romanian: subzistență — means of support
- Romanian: mijloace de trai — means of support
- Russian: прожи́тие (prožítije) — means of support
- Russian: прожи́ток (prožítok) — means of support
- Russian: пропита́ние (propitánije) — means of support
- Serbo-Croatian: издржавање — means of support
- Serbo-Croatian: izdržavanje — means of support
- Spanish: subsistencia — means of support
- Swedish: underhåll — means of support
- Turkish: azık — means of support
Real reading context