nonexistent

adjective

non·​ex·​is·​tent ˌnän-ig-ˈzi-stənt 

: not in actual or present occurrence : not existing

… historical accounts of the first Thanksgiving are almost nonexistent …

—Jasper White

Water was often a luxury, bathrooms were nonexistent, the food was often suspect.

—Noel Vietmeyer

Although brain size and organization became basically modern at least 100,000 years ago, with the robust Neanderthals, their advances in tool-making were slight, their self-expression through art virtually nonexistent.

—John Noble Wilford

Synonyms of nonexistent

• absent
• lacking

Examples of nonexistent in a Sentence

our perennially nonexistent computer tech is, once again, not here today

Recent Examples on the Web

Attorneys for State Farm apologized to a court for submitting legal briefings rife with artificial intelligence hallucinations and nonexistent case law, the latest example of lawyers bolstering their arguments with precedents made up by a chatbot. — Rebecca Ellis, Los Angeles Times, 19 Aug. 2026

And cases of enforcement against districts for starting early are rare to nonexistent. — Zaire Breedlove, Charlotte Observer, 16 Aug. 2026

While court documents show there have been settlement discussions in some of the cases, some plaintiffs’ attorneys say the pace has been agonizingly slow—or nonexistent. — Luke Cyphers, Sportico.com, 13 Aug. 2026

The commissioner’s relationship with her players waffles between frosty and nonexistent. — Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 12 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1646, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for nonexistent

• coexistent
• equidistant
• inconsistent
• preexistent
• assistant
• consistent
• existent
• insistent
• persistent
• resistant
• subsistent
• distant