- already or previously in place, before being replaced, altered, or added to:Fundraising costs money, and recruiting new donors is more expensive than asking existing supporters to give a little more.
- having actual being or life:The great ornithologist Alexander Wetmore, who died in 1978, allegedly declared that all existing species of birds had already been discovered.
- occurring in a specified place or under specified conditions:Members of committees dealing with the behavior of intelligence services met to discuss the existing challenges and exchange best practices.
- achieving only the basic needs of existence, as food and shelter:Forrest Bess was a marginally existing bait fisherman and artist who lived in a ramshackle cabin on the Gulf of Mexico.
