consistency
Pluralconsistencies (some meanings)
- 1Reliability or uniformity; the quality of behaving or performing the same way over time.
Like a favorite restaurant that serves the same great meal whether you visit in spring or winter.
Investors valued the company for the consistency of its quarterly earnings.
A good referee brings consistency to every call, regardless of which team benefits.
Similarreliability, uniformity, regularity, steadiness, constancy
Oppositeinconsistency, unreliability, variability, irregularity
- 2The degree of thickness or fluidity of a substance, indicating how readily it flows.
Like comparing thin maple syrup to thick peanut butter.
The paint needs the consistency of heavy cream before you apply it.
Adjust the consistency of the dough by adding flour a little at a time.
Similartexture, thickness, density, viscosity
Note
Texture is usually given by comparison rather than measured: the consistency of a thick paste, a fatty material with an oatmeal-like consistency. The common patterns are "the consistency of" plus a familiar substance, or "a ___-like consistency." Watch the overlap with the sense of uniformity: "the consistency of the sauce" can mean how thick it is or how reliably it turns out the same, so let context make texture plain.
- 3Correspondence or compatibility between things, so that they agree rather than contradict each other.
Like two witnesses whose stories line up perfectly, leaving no gaps.
Auditors look for consistency between a company's reported figures and its actual records.
The theory's consistency with experimental data made it widely accepted.
Similaragreement, compatibility, correspondence, congruence, accord
Oppositeinconsistency, incompatibility, contradiction, discrepancy
- 4Freedom from contradiction; the property of a set of axioms from which no mutually contradictory propositions can be derived.
Like a legal code where no two laws ever command opposite actions.
Gödel showed that a sufficiently powerful system cannot prove its own consistency.
The proof established the consistency of the axioms underlying the theory.
Oppositeinconsistency
Note
Logic and mathematics make the word absolute: a deductive system is consistent when no formula and its negation can both be proved in it. The stakes are high, because an inconsistent system proves every formula and so says nothing at all. Unlike agreement with outside facts, this is a property of the system alone. It concerns whether the axioms contradict one another, not whether they are true.
- 5Coherence among the immediate or neighboring parts of something, so that nearby elements hold together.
Like a melody where each note follows naturally from the one before.
Editors check the consistency of adjacent paragraphs so the argument flows.
The patchwork essay had no consistency from one section to the next.
Similarcoherence, cohesion, continuity, unity
Oppositeincoherence, inconsistency, disjointedness
Less common meaning
- 6Firmness of make-up or character; solidity, durability, and the ability to last.
His friendship is of a noble make and a lasting consistency.
1692, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several OccasionsNote
An obsolete sense in which the word meant staying power: what a thing or a person is made of, and how long it holds. Robert South's sermons praise a friendship "of a noble make and a lasting consistency," pairing it with make much as we would now say constitution. Modern readers hear reliable sameness instead. In older prose, read it as firmness, and keep it out of your own writing.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of consistency apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.