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existential
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

existential as in:  existential threat

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Israel faces an existential threat from some of its neighbors.
existential = characterized by threatening existence
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  • •
    The loss of the buffalo was an existential blow to the Apache culture.
    existential = relating to existence
  • •
    McCandless wasn't some feckless slacker, adrift and confused, racked by existential despair.  (source)
    existential = related to searching for meaning in life
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    For me, growing up as a human being on the planet Earth in the twenty-first century was a real kick in the teeth. Existentially speaking.  (source)
    Existentially = in a manner that is related to what is important in life
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Show 5 more with 2 word variations
  • •
    It could be some existential terror related to the trolls.  (source)
    existential = threatening existence
  • •
    Buddha answered by likening the monk to a man who gets pierced by a poisoned arrow. The wounded man would have no theoretical interest in what the arrow was made of, what kind of poison it was dipped in, or which direction it came from. He would most likely want somebody to pull it out and treat the wound. ... That would be existentially important to him.  (source)
    existentially = characterized by threatening existence
  • •
    The threat was not yet existential.  (source)
    existential = threatening existence
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    For the first time in my life, I know how it feels to face an existential menace.  (source)
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    In 1977, while brooding on a Colorado barstool, picking unhappily at my existential scabs, I got it into my head to climb a mountain called the Devils Thumb.  (source)
    existential = related to searching for meaning or direction in life
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existential as in:  existential philosophy

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    While she was enjoying life and making a better world, he fell into depression, suffering an existential crisis in which he came to think of life as pointless.
    existential = relating to knowing what is important in life
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    Abraham Maslow, I present to you Augustus Waters, whose existential curiosity dwarfed that of his well-fed, well-loved, healthy brethren.  (source)
    existential = relating to existentialism; a philosophical movement concerned with what is important in life
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    "You must use this existential emptiness to fill yourself." His words were very enlightening to me. Later, after I thought about it a bit, I realized that it wasn't Buddhist philosophy at all, but was more akin to some modern physics theories.  (source)
    existential = relating to existence and what is important
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Show 10 more with 5 word variations
  • •
    "Why were we here?" "You mean here at this camp, or are you being existential?"  (source)
    existential = relating to the philosophical question of what is important in life
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    Zayd (like most everyone in the three-hundred-seat lecture hall for Existentialism) thinks Reginster is about the coolest human being anywhere.†  (source)
    Existentialism = a philosophical movement that assumes each person is free to determine what is essential in their existence
  • •
    Existentialist was another way of saying, "silly and out there."†  (source)
    Existentialist = of existentialism -- a philosophical movement that assumes each person is free to determine what is essential in their existence
  • •
    He was still wearing his characteristic word shirts—this one said EXISTENTIALISTS DO IT POINTLESSLY-but his jeans no longer had holes in the knees and torn pockets.†  (source)
    EXISTENTIALISTS = people who believe in existentialism -- a philosophical movement that assumes each person is free to determine what is essential in their existence
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    I liked that he took existentially fraught free throws.  (source)
    existentially = concerned with meaning (or lack thereof) of life
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    He was a businessman, pronounced busynessman in his case, a hardworking, earthbound professional, more concerned with inbreeding among the lions than any over-arching moral or existential scheme.  (source)
    existential = relating to existentialism; a philosophical movement concerned with what is important in life
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    In the age of existentialism and thereafter, the story of lost children has been all the rage.  (source)
    existentialism = a philosophical movement that assumes each person is free to determine what is important in life
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    From the very first time he had undressed Amanda, fumbling his way in the darkness, tangled in the rags of her existentialist disguise, trembling with anticipation as he felt the protuberances and interstices that he had so often imagined without ever knowing them in all their splendid nakedness, he had assumed that she had sufficient experience to avoid making him a father at twenty-one and herself an unwed mother at twenty-five.†  (source)
    existentialist = of existentialism -- a philosophical movement that assumes each person is free to determine what is essential in their existence
  • •
    One game appeared to be charades reinterpreted by existentialists; another involved listening to rocks.†  (source)
    existentialists = people who believe in existentialism -- a philosophical movement that assumes each person is free to determine what is essential in their existence
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    The day of the existentially fraught free throws was coincidentally also my last day of dual leggedness.  (source)
    existentially = concerned with meaning (or lack thereof) of life
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