nonexistent

Nonexistent is an English adjective describing something that does not exist or has no real being. It is formed from the prefix non- added to existent, which itself derives from Latin exsistere “to stand forth.” The related noun is nonexistence, and the variant with hyphen, non-existent, is also common in some style guides.

In ordinary discourse, nonexistent describes objects, entities, or states that are asserted not to exist. Example: “Dragons are nonexistent in modern zoology.” The term emphasizes absence rather than mere rarity or fictional status; it is not primarily used to argue about truth, but to characterize existence status of a referent.

In philosophy and logic, questions about existence and nonexistence are central. Existential claims (“There is a unicorn”) can be true or false depending on the domain and interpretation; a unicorn may be said to be nonexistent in the actual world. In formal logic, nonexistence is contrasted with existence across possible worlds, and the rules for handling empty domains or nonexistent objects are discussed in ontology and semantics.

Related topics include existence, nonexistence, ontology, possible world semantics, and existential quantification.