Meaning & use
existing product
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Meaning
nouncountable
A product that is already available or in use, as opposed to one that is new or planned.
Grammar: Countable; use 'an existing product' for one, or 'existing products' for more than one.
Patterns
- an existing product
- existing products
- improve an existing product
The company decided to update its existing products rather than launch something completely new.
Before developing a new app, we studied the existing product to see what users liked and disliked.
An existing product can often be modified more cheaply than creating a new one from scratch.
Word forms
| plural | existing products |
|---|
Common combinations
- improve an existing product
- They hired a designer to improve the existing product.
- replace an existing product
- The new model will replace the existing product next year.
- existing product line
- The existing product line includes several popular items.
- modify an existing product
- We can modify the existing product to meet the new safety rules.
Synonyms and how they differ
- current product
- Similar, but 'current' emphasizes the present time, while 'existing' simply means it is already there.
- established product
- Suggests a product that has been around for a while and is well known, whereas 'existing product' does not imply success or age.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: existing product or existent?
existing product vs existent
Existent is a formal adjective meaning 'real or existing', but it is not used before nouns like 'product' in everyday English. Use 'existing' instead.
Practice
The company plans to ______ its existing product rather than create a new one.
Choose one answer.
After 'plans to', we need the base form of the verb, so 'improve' is correct. 'Improvement' is a noun, 'improving' is a gerund or present participle, and 'improved' is past tense, none of which fit after 'to' here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “existing product”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.