: the quality, state, or condition of having existence
It has a crystalline, heartbreaking purity, that ontological beauty … of each object resonating in its beingness … Phillip Lopate, Slate Magazine, 19 Mar. 2001
Blue collar or white, teacher or cabbie, her friends judge her and themselves by their beingness. Nora Watson, a young journalist, recounts a party game: Who Are You? Older people respond with their job titles: I'm a copy writer. I'm an accountant. The young say: I'm me, my name is so-and-so. Studs Terkel, New York Times, 19 Mar. 1973