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Noun: subsistence  sub'sistuns
  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