- the means by which one maintains life
- the act or condition of subsisting
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
sub•sist•ence /səbˈsɪstəns/USA pronunciation
n. [uncountable]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- the state or fact of subsisting.
- the providing of just enough food, resources, etc., to be able to live:Although the government says they are not at the poverty level, they are at the subsistence level.
sub•sist•ence
(səb sis′təns),USA pronunciation n.
- the state or fact of subsisting.
- the state or fact of existing.
- the providing of sustenance or support.
- means of supporting life;
a living or livelihood. - the source from which food and other items necessary to exist are obtained.
- Philosophy
- existence, especially of an independent entity.
- the quality of having timeless or abstract existence.
- mode of existence or that by which a substance is individualized.
- Late Latin subsistentia; see subsist, -ence
- late Middle English 1400–50
- 3. survival, maintenance, nourishment.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
subsistence /səbˈsɪstəns/ n
'subsistence' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
bread and butter
- breadline
- cabbage
- cash crop
- communism
- destitute
- East Timor
- Malthusian
- on
- peasant
- poor
- sponge
- standard of living
- sub
- subsistence farming
- subsistence level
- subsistence wage
- destitution
- iron law of wages
- keep
- livelihood
- living
- maintenance
- marginal
- Tehuacán Valley
- self-subsistence
- starvation wages
- subsistence allowance
- support