WordWeb Online

1. Minimal (or marginal) resources for subsisting
   "social security provided only a bare subsistence"
    
2. A means of surviving
   "farming is a hard means of subsistence"
    
3. The state of existing in reality; having substance

Derived forms: subsistences

See also: subsist

Type of: being, beingness, bread and butter, endurance, existence, keep, livelihood, living, support, survival, sustenance

Encyclopedia: Subsistence