Consistency

How to spell consistency

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce consistency

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does consistency mean?

1. nounThe quality of always behaving or performing in the same reliable, unchanging way.
2. nounThe degree of firmness, thickness, or density of a substance.

Consistency in a sentence

• The coach praised the team for their consistency over the whole season.

• Keep stirring until the sauce reaches a smooth, pourable consistency.

• Consistency in your daily routine makes the new habit easier to keep.

• The dough had the consistency of soft clay after kneading.

Where does consistency come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb consistere, meaning 'to stand together' or 'to stand firm', built from the prefix con- ('together') and sistere ('to stand', a reduplicated form of stare). Late Latin formed the noun consistentia for a state of standing firm or holding together, and that notion of a thing keeping its form gave rise to two related modern ideas: steadiness of behaviour and the physical texture or firmness of a substance. English adopted it in the early 1600s, partly through French and partly straight from Latin, originally describing the degree to which a material holds together. The same sist root stands inside its relatives 'insist', 'persist', and 'resist', all of which carry that core idea of standing or holding. The spelling trap lies in the unstressed middle and the ending: the -ency is easily slipped to -ancy, and the repeated soft s sounds can blur in writing.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• sist (from Latin sistere: to stand)
• -ency (noun-forming suffix)