Consistent

How to spell consistent

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce consistent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does consistent mean?

1. adjectiveActing or done in the same way over time, or in agreement and free from contradiction.

Consistent in a sentence

• The team delivered consistent results across every quarter of the year.

• Her account of the accident was consistent with the witness statements.

Where does consistent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb consistere, which combined con- meaning 'together' with sistere meaning 'to stand firm' or 'to take a stand'. The literal sense was something that 'stands together', that is, holds its shape and does not fall apart or contradict itself. The closely related Latin adjective consistens described things that were firm, settled, or in agreement, and English adopted the word in the early 1600s, at first describing physical things that held together and soon after describing behaviour, arguments, or qualities that agree with themselves over time. The same sistere root sits inside many familiar relatives such as 'insist', 'persist', and 'resist', all of which carry that idea of standing in some way. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed final syllable: writers reach for '-ant' by reflex, but the Latin form gives us '-ent', and remembering 'insistent' and 'persistent' as a family keeps the ending right.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• sist (from sistere: to stand, take a stand)
• -ent (adjective suffix)