existential

adjective

ex·​is·​ten·​tial ˌeg-(ˌ)zi-ˈsten(t)-shəl 

ˌek-(ˌ)si-

1

: of, relating to, or affirming existence

existential propositions

an existential crisis

the existential threat of climate change

2

a

: grounded in existence or the experience of existence : empirical

existential phenomenology

b

: having being in time and space

… abstractions, ideal gauges without claim to existential reality …

—W. Wolfgang Holdheim

3

: concerned with or involving human existence or its nature : existentialist

an existential novel

existentially adverb

Synonyms of existential

• empirical
• observational
• objective
• experimental

Examples of existential in a Sentence

child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim believed that fairy tales help children cope with their existential anxieties and dilemmas

Recent Examples on the Web

Altman was careful to say that Astra, OpenAI’s current flagship model, does not pose an existential threat. — Alyson Shontell, Fortune, 5 Oct. 2026

Artificial is pointedly funnier than his other work, including a large comedic performance by Ike Barinholtz as Musk, even as an existential dread permeates. — E. Alex Jung, Vulture, 2 Oct. 2026

That has left the kingdom searching for friends beyond Washington, for allies ready to put rockets where the rhetoric is and assist in a fight Saudi Arabia considers existential. — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 2026

But the less strictly technical procedure Serra describes is analogous to operations at stake in Jonas’s own work, implying that the act of measurement by walking and seeing is tacitly existential. — Jeffrey Weiss, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2026

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Late Latin existentiālis, exsistentiālis, from existentia, exsistentia existence + Latin -ālis -al entry 1; in the 19th and 20th centuries in part as translation of Danish existentiel (later eksistentiel) & German existentiell

Note: Compare "Existentielt Indlæg" ("existential contribution") in the subtitle of Søren Kierkegaard's Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift til de philosophiske Smuler (1846; Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments), used also elsewhere in the work.

First Known Use

1656, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing existential

• existential quantifier

Rhymes for existential

• consequential
• deferential
• exponential
• influential
• nonessential
• penitential
• precedential
• preferential
• presidential
• providential
• referential
• residential