INCONSTANCY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does inconstancy mean? 

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

1. unfaithfulness by virtue of being unreliable or treacherous

2. the quality of being changeable and variable

  Familiarity information: INCONSTANCY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INCONSTANCY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unfaithfulness by virtue of being unreliable or treacherous

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

faithlessness; falseness; fickleness; inconstancy

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

infidelity; unfaithfulness (the quality of being unfaithful)

Derivation:

inconstant (likely to change frequently often without apparent or cogent reason; variable)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of being changeable and variable

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

changefulness; inconstancy

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

changeability; changeableness (the quality of being changeable; having a marked tendency to change)

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

capriciousness; unpredictability (the quality of being guided by sudden unpredictable impulses)

Antonym:

constancy (the quality of being enduring and free from change or variation)

Derivation:

inconstant (likely to change frequently often without apparent or cogent reason; variable)

 Context examples 

Are those who have been disappointed in their first choice, whether from the inconstancy of its object, or the perverseness of circumstances, to be equally indifferent during the rest of their lives?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

As she thought less of his inebriety, she thought more of his inconstancy and presumption; and with fewer struggles for politeness, replied, It is impossible for me to doubt any longer.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I enjoyed perfect health of body, and tranquillity of mind; I did not feel the treachery or inconstancy of a friend, nor the injuries of a secret or open enemy.

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

Could you have believed there had been such inconstancy and fickleness, and everything that is bad in the world?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

He was entangled by his own vanity, with as little excuse of love as possible, and without the smallest inconstancy of mind towards her cousin.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

If I had such a memory as Benwick, I could bring you fifty quotations in a moment on my side the argument, and I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Elinor scolded him, harshly as ladies always scold the imprudence which compliments themselves, for having spent so much time with them at Norland, when he must have felt his own inconstancy.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Of all things in the world inconstancy is my aversion.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It did appear—there was no concealing it—exactly like the pretence of being in love with her, instead of Harriet; an inconstancy, if real, the most contemptible and abominable! and she had difficulty in behaving with temper.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Elinor was very earnest in her application to her mother, relating all that had passed, her suspicions of Willoughby's inconstancy, urging her by every plea of duty and affection to demand from Marianne an account of her real situation with respect to him.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)