inconsistency

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɪnkənˈsɪst(ə)nsi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɪnkənˈsɪstənsi/

• Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):

  (file)

Noun

inconsistency (countable and uncountable, plural inconsistencies)

1. The state of being inconsistent.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 4–5:

     It was a strange inconsistency, but never till then had I been so much struck with the worthless and frivolous life of society. Never till then did I feel the deep and eternal debt of gratitude that human nature owes to those who assert its higher influence; who feel their generous activity stirred by a thrice noble emulation; who appeal from the present to the future, and redeem their kind, by shewing of how much that is good and great ambition and genius are capable.

   • 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 96:

     In her pamphlet on the Russian revolution she urged Lenin to introduce unfettered democracy and at the same time to crush all nationalist movements with an iron hand, not suspecting for a moment that there might be any inconsistency in these two demands.

2. (logic) An incompatibility between two propositions that cannot both be true.

Synonyms

• contrariety
• deviation
• difference
• disagreement
• disparity
• disproportion
• disproportionateness
• dissimilarity
• dissonance
• divergence
• incongruity
• inconsonance
• inequality
• paradox
• unlikeness
• variance

Antonyms

• consistency

Derived terms

• dynamic inconsistency
• time inconsistency

Translations

state of being inconsistent

• Armenian: անհետևողականություն (hy) (anhetewoġakanutʻyun), անկապակացություն (ankapakacʻutʻyun)
• Catalan: inconsistència f
• Cebuano: inkonsistensi
• Dutch: inconsistentie (nl) f, tegenstrijdigheid (nl) f
• Esperanto: malakordo
• Finnish: epäjohdonmukaisuus (fi)
• French: inconsistance (fr) f
• Greek: ανακολουθία (el) f (anakolouthía)
• Hindi: असंगति (hi) f (asaṅgti), विसंगति (hi) f (visaṅgti)
• Irish: neamh-chomhsheasmhacht f, neamhfhreagracht f
• Italian: inconsistenza (it) f
• Japanese: ねじれ (ja) (nejire), 不一致 (ja) (fuitchi)
• Malay: kesenjangan (ms)
• Māori: haraki
• Portuguese: inconsistência (pt) f
• Romanian: inconsistență (ro)
• Scottish Gaelic: mì-chòrdadh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Latin: nedosljenost f

• Spanish: inconsistencia (es) f
• Tagalog: pagkadimaugnayin
• Ukrainian: непослідо́вність f (neposlidóvnistʹ), неузго́дженість f (neuzhódženistʹ), невідпові́дність f (nevidpovídnistʹ)