• Presence

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /ˈprÉ›zÉ™ns/
    • Hyphenation: pres + ence

    Alternative forms

    Origin

    Through Old French presence, from Latin praesentia ("a being present"), from praesentem.

    Full definition of presence

    Noun

    presence

    (plural presences)
    1. The fact or condition of being present, or of being within sight or call, or at hand.Any painter can benefit from the presence of a live model from which to draw.
    2. The part of space within one's immediate vicinity.Bob never said anything about it in my presence.
    3. A quality of poise and effectiveness that enables a performer to achieve a close relationship with his audience.Despite being less than five foot, she filled up the theatre with her stage presence.
    4. Something (as a spirit) felt or believed to be present.I'm convinced that there was a presence in that building that I can't explain, which led to my heroic actions.
    5. A company's business activity in a particular market.
    6. The state of being closely focused on the here and now, not distracted by irrelevant thoughts

    Antonyms

    Verb

    1. (philosophy) To make or become present.
      • Time and being (lecture)
      • 1985, David Edward Shaner, The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism: A Phenomenological Study of KÅ«kai and Dōgen, page 59,Within a completely neutral horizon, the primordial continuous stream of experience is presenced without interruption. As this time, the past and future have no meaning apart from the now in which they are presenced.
      • 1998, H. Peter Steeves, Founding Community: A Phenomenological-Ethical Inquiry, page 59,Just as the bread and butter can be presenced as more than just the bread and the butter, so baking a loaf of bread can be more than just the baking, the baker, and the bread.
      • 2005, James Phillips, Heidegger's Volk: Between National Socialism and Poetry, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0804750718 (paperback), page 118,From the overtaxing of the regime's paranoiac classifications and monitoring of the social field, Heidegger was to await in vain the presencing of that which is present, the revelation of the Being of beings in its precedence to governmental control.
      • Person-centred Nursing: Theory and Practice

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