Consistently

How to spell consistently

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce consistently

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does consistently mean?

1. adverbIn a steady, unchanging way; reliably the same on each occasion.

Consistently in a sentence

• The new hire consistently arrives ten minutes before the morning briefing.

• Their savings grew because they consistently set aside a fixed amount each month.

Where does consistently come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb consistere, which meant literally 'to stand together' or 'to stand firm', formed from con- 'together' and sistere 'to stand or to set in place'. In its earliest sense it described things that held their position and did not fall apart, and from that idea of staying put grew the modern notion of being steady, reliable, and free of contradiction. The adjective 'consistent' reached English in the early 1600s through Latin, and the adverb 'consistently' followed as English speakers added the regular -ly ending to describe behaviour that holds firm over time. The same sistere root stands inside many relatives such as 'persist', 'resist', and 'insist', all of which carry a buried sense of standing. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle: the run of -sist- and the schwa before -ent often tempt writers to drop a letter or write -ant instead of -ent.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• sist (from sistere: to stand, to set)
• -ent (adjective)
• -ly (adverb suffix)