consistent

English

Etymology

From Latin consistens, present participle of cōnsistō (“to agree with; to continue”), from con- (“prefix indicating a being or bringing together of several objects”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, by, near, with”)) + sistō (“to cause to stand; to place, set”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *stísteh₂ti (“to be standing up; to be getting up”), from the root *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈsɪstənt/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

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• Hyphenation: con‧sist‧ent

Adjective

consistent (comparative more consistent, superlative most consistent)

1. Of a regularly occurring, dependable nature.

   The consistent use of Chinglish in China can be very annoying, apart from some initial amusement.

   He is very consistent in his political choices: economy good or bad, he always votes Labour!

   • 1728, E[phraim] Chambers, “Consistent Bodies”, in Cyclopædia: Or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences;  In Two Volumes, volumes I (A–H), London: James and John Knapton , →OCLC, page 309, column 2:

     That author [Mr. Boyle] has a particular Eſſay of the Atmoſphere of Conſiſtent Bodies; wherein he ſhews, that all, even ſolid, hard, ponderous, and fix'd Bodies, do exhale or emit Effluvia to a certain space all around 'em.

   • 1843, John Stuart Mill, “Of Ratiocination, or Syllogism”, in A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence, and the Methods of Scientific Investigation. , volume I, London: John W Parker, , →OCLC, § 2, page 237:

     When a philosopher adopted fully the Nominalist view of the signification of general language, retaining along with it the dictum de omni as the foundation of all reasoning, two such premisses fairly put together were likely, if he was a consistent thinker, to land him in rather startling conclusions.

2. Compatible, accordant.
   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, , London: W Taylor , →OCLC, page 43:

     As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my Parents, ſo I could not be content now, but I muſt go and leave the happy View I had of being a rich and thriving Man in my new Plantation, only to purſue a raſh and immoderate Deſire of riſing faſter than the Nature of the Thing admitted; and thus I caſt my ſelf down again into the deepeſt Gulph of human Miſery that ever Man fell into, or perhaps could be conſiſtent with Life and a State Health of in the World.

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XIX, in Pride and Prejudice: , volume I, London: for T Egerton, , →OCLC, page 251:

     When I do myself the honour of speaking to you next on the subject, I shall hope to receive a more favourable answer than you have now given me; though I am far from accusing you of cruelty at present, because I know it to be the established custom of your sex to reject a man on the first application, and perhaps you have even now said as much to encourage my suit as would be consistent with the true delicacy of the female character.

   • 2012 January, Steven Sloman, “The Battle between Intuition and Deliberation [review of Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) by Daniel Kahneman]”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 8 January 2012, page 74:

     Libertarian paternalism is the view that, because the way options are presented to citizens affects what they choose, society should present options in a way that "nudges" our intuitive selves to make choices that are more consistent with what our more deliberative selves would have chosen if they were in control.

3. (logic) Of a set of statements: such that no contradiction logically follows from them.
   • 1857, William Spalding, “Introduction”, in An Introduction to Logical Science: Being a Reprint of the Article “Logic” from the Eighth Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, chapter II (The Function and Axioms of Logical Science), paragraph 12(2), pages 22–23:

     When we ask whether ideas or terms are consistent or inconsistent with each other, the question really is, in what manner the relation presupposed between the ideas qualifies them for being combined as terms of a judgment.

   • 2008, Charles Petzold, “Centuries of Progress”, in The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour through Alan Turing’s Historic Paper on Computability and the Turing Machine, Indianapolis, Ind.: Wiley Publishing, →ISBN, page 39:

     Part of establishing a foundation for geometry was demonstrating that the axioms were consistent – that they could never lead to contradictions.

Antonyms

• contradictory
• incompatible
• inconsistent

Derived terms

Related terms

• consist
• consistence
• consistency
• inconsistent

Translations

Noun

consistent (plural consistents)

1. (in the plural, rare) Objects or facts that are coexistent, or in agreement with one another.
   • 1661, Galileo Galilei, “Galilæus: Galilæus Lincæus, His Systeme of the World. The Second Dialogue.”, in Thomas Salusbury, transl., Mathematical Collections and Translations, volume I, part I, London: William Leybourne, →OCLC, pages 234–235:

     The Diurnal motion of the primum mobile, is it not from Eaſt to Weſt? And the annual motion of the Sun through the Ecliptick, is it not on the contrary from Weſt to Eaſt? How then can you make theſe motions being conferred on the Earth, of contraries to become conſiſtents?

3. (Eastern Orthodoxy, historical) A kind of penitent who was allowed to assist at prayers, but was not permitted to receive the holy sacraments.
   • , →OCLC, page 651:

     [F]rom the fourth century onwards, the Eastern Church divided penitents into four classes. […] The consistentes (the last class—συστάντες, consistentes) "stand together with the faithful, and do not go out with the catechumens. Last comes participation in the sacraments (ἁγιασμάτων)."]

Hypernyms

• (kind of penitent): penitent

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “consistent”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

Further reading

• consistency on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• centonists

Catalan

Adjective

consistent m or f (masculine and feminine plural consistents)

1. consistent

Derived terms

• consistentment
• inconsistent

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cōnsistēns or French consistant (with vowel adaptation to Latin).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌkɔn.siˈstɛnt/, /ˌkɔn.sɪˈstɛnt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: con‧sis‧tent
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

Adjective

consistent (comparative consistenter, superlative consistentst)

1. consistent, coherent

   Antonym: inconsistent

Inflection

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Indonesian: konsisten

References

French

Verb

consistent

1. third-person plural present indicative/subjunctive of consister

Latin

Verb

cōnsistent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of cōnsistō

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French consistant.

Adjective

consistent m or n (feminine singular consistentă, masculine plural consistenți, feminine and neuter plural consistente)

1. solid
2. consistent

Declension