Common word for "presence" and "absence"

Question

I'm looking for a common word, describing two other words. For example, if the words I had was "young" and "old", the common word I'm looking for might be "age". If I had "female" and "male", the common word would be "gender". If I had "warm" and "cold", it might be "temperature".
So my question is, what is the common word for "presence" and "absence", in the context of objects?

Cascabel · Accepted Answer

From John Lawler...

"Normally presence is the name of the category, with the values of present or absent. Many binary qualities are named for the unmarked (usually affirmative) case, like length for long/short."

Poison Ivy · Answer

I believe attendance is the word you're looking for.
The definition is 'the person or numbers of persons present,' which could also cover how many people are absent.
If I ask whether Bob is present or absent, it would be a question in terms of his attendance. Hope this helps!

Common word for "presence" and "absence"

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