What is meant . . . by saying that existence precedes essence?

His major thesis is that existence precedes essence.

The reaction took on the name of existentialism, and was characterized by the phrase "existence precedes essence".

The subjective existence of reality precedes and defines its nature.

Even so, some orders still remain slightly independent from Rome, particularly the religious orders of solemn vows, whose existence preceded the reformation.

What first affects us are things that exist and we form ideas of essences afterward, so existence precedes essence.

The term "existence precedes essence" subsequently became a maxim of the existentialist movement.

As existence precedes essence so emotion precedes and helps to create its object.

As an existentialist, Beauvoir believed that existence precedes essence; hence one is not born a woman, but becomes one.

Thus the car's existence cannot precede the steering wheel's existence.