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subsister

to subsist

verb soob-sees-TEH Rare

Also means

to remain, to survive

Usage Note

Subsister means to continue to exist, especially against odds — used for people surviving on little (subsister avec peu de ressources) and for things that persist (peu de témoignages subsistent). It is a more literary word than survivre and tends to focus on bare continuation rather than dramatic survival. The noun subsistance (f) means 'subsistence' or 'livelihood'.

Examples

"Quelques ruines subsistent encore aujourd'hui."

Natural Translation

A few ruins still remain today.

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