There is used to talk about a place that is not here, or to point something out, as in 'over there'. It is also used in sentences like 'There is a book on the table' to introduce that something exists.
From Old English *þær* 'in or at that place', related to 'that' and 'the'. It has long served both as a location word and as a dummy subject in sentences.
In 'There is a problem', 'there' doesn’t really mean a place—it’s just a grammatical placeholder so English can keep its subject-verb order. The same little word can point to a spot on a map or simply announce that something exists.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.