# consistence
## English
### Etymology

From Middle French. Compare French consistance.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /kənˈsɪst(ə)ns/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /kənˈsɪstəns/

### Noun

consistence (countable and uncountable, plural consistences)
* Logical consistency; lack of self-contradiction.
* The staying together, or remaining in close relation, of non-physical things.
    Her performance has lacked consistence over the last year.
    This composer’s musical work is of extraordinary consistence.
* (archaic) The physical quality which is given by the degree of density, firmness, solidity, and viscosity; consistency.
** 1731, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments, and the Choice of Them, According to the Different Constitutions of Human Bodies. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson […], →OCLC:If they [expressed juices] be boiled into the Consistence of a Syrup.
** 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:All these things, and many others too numerous to mention, were well mixed together in the famous pot and boiled for four hours, until the consistence of a mess, or poss, was obtained, […]
* (obsolete) The condition of adhering or standing together, or being fixed in union, as the parts of a body; coherence, existence, firmness, solidity.
** 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:Water, being divided, maketh many circles, till it restore itself to the natural consistence.
** 1650 October (published 1651), Jer[emy] Taylor, “[XXVIII Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Summer Half-year, […].] Sermon XXVIII. A Funeral Sermon, Preached at the Obsequies of the Right Honorable and Most Vertuous Lady, the Lady Frances Countesse of Carbery: Who Deceased October the 9th 1650. at Her House Golden-grove in Carmarthen-shire.”, in ΕΝΙΑΥΤΟΣ [Eniautos]. A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Royston […], published 1654, →OCLC, page 358:VVe are as vvater, vveak, and of no conſiſtence, alvvayes deſcending, abiding in no certain place, unleſeſ vvhere vvee are detained vvith violence: […]
** 1830, The Veterinarian:When it was brought to the school it discharged from its right nostril, a whitish, viscid, clotty matter, which, although of little consistence, strongly adhered to the sides of the nostril.
* (obsolete) That which stands together as a united whole; a combination.
** 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC:The church of God, as meaning whole consistence of orders and members.
* (obsolete) Standing still; quiescence, state of rest.
* (obsolete except poetic) A substance which adheres together.
** 1658, Thomas Browne, “Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall. […]. Chapter V.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 78:Ægyptian ingenuity vvas more unſatisfied, contriving their bodies in ſvveet conſiſtences, to attend the return of their ſouls. But all vvas vanity, feeding the vvinde, and folly.

#### Derived terms

* inconsistence

#### Related terms

* consist
* consistency
* consistent

#### Translations

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