CONSISTENCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does consistence mean? 

• CONSISTENCE (noun)
  The noun CONSISTENCE has 2 senses:

1. a harmonious uniformity or agreement among things or parts

2. the property of holding together and retaining its shape

  Familiarity information: CONSISTENCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONSISTENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A harmonious uniformity or agreement among things or parts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

consistence; consistency

Hypernyms ("consistence" is a kind of...):

uniformity; uniformness (the quality of lacking diversity or variation (even to the point of boredom))

Derivation:

consist (be consistent in form, tenor, or character; be congruous)

consistent (marked by an orderly, logical, and aesthetically consistent relation of parts)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The property of holding together and retaining its shape

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

body; consistence; consistency; substance

Context example:

when the dough has enough consistency it is ready to bake

Hypernyms ("consistence" is a kind of...):

property (a basic or essential attribute shared by all members of a class)

Attribute:

thick (relatively dense in consistency)

thin (relatively thin in consistency or low in density; not viscous)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "consistence"):

gaseousness (having the consistency of a gas)

viscosity; viscousness (resistance of a liquid to shear forces (and hence to flow))

thickness (resistance to flow)

thinness (a consistency of low viscosity)

hardness (the property of being rigid and resistant to pressure; not easily scratched; measured on Mohs scale)

softness (the property of giving little resistance to pressure and being easily cut or molded)

breakableness (the consistency of something that breaks under pressure)

unbreakableness (a consistency of something that does not break under pressure)

porosity; porousness (the property of being porous; being able to absorb fluids)

solidity; solidness (the consistency of a solid)

 Context examples 

Besides, there was a greater consistence in their dislike of him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Everything returned into the same channel as before his absence; his manners being to each so animated and agreeable as to lose no ground with either, and just stopping short of the consistence, the steadiness, the solicitude, and the warmth which might excite general notice.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And he proposed further, that by employing spiders, the charge of dyeing silks should be wholly saved; whereof I was fully convinced, when he showed me a vast number of flies most beautifully coloured, wherewith he fed his spiders, assuring us that the webs would take a tincture from them; and as he had them of all hues, he hoped to fit everybody’s fancy, as soon as he could find proper food for the flies, of certain gums, oils, and other glutinous matter, to give a strength and consistence to the threads.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He advised great statesmen to examine into the diet of all suspected persons; their times of eating; upon which side they lay in bed; with which hand they wipe their posteriors; take a strict view of their excrements, and, from the colour, the odour, the taste, the consistence, the crudeness or maturity of digestion, form a judgment of their thoughts and designs; because men are never so serious, thoughtful, and intent, as when they are at stool, which he found by frequent experiment; for, in such conjunctures, when he used, merely as a trial, to consider which was the best way of murdering the king, his ordure would have a tincture of green; but quite different, when he thought only of raising an insurrection, or burning the metropolis.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)