<p><strong>noun</strong></p><ul><li>the state or fact of subsisting.</li><li>the state or fact of existing.</li><li>the providing of sustenance or support.</li><li>Synonyms: nourishment, maintenance, survival.</li><li>means of supporting life; a living or livelihood.</li><li>the source from which food and other items necessary to exist are obtained.</li><li>Philosophy: existence, especially of an independent entity.</li><li>the quality of having timeless or abstract existence.</li><li>mode of existence or that by which a substance is individualized.</li></ul>