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continuity

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Middle French continuité, from Latin continuitas. By surface analysis, continu(e) +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

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  • (Received Pronunciation, Canada) IPA(key): /ˌkɒn.tɪˈnjuː.ɪ.ti/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˌkɑn.tɪˈn(j)u.ə.ti/, [ˌkɑn.tɪˈn(j)u.ə.ɾi], [ˌkɑn.tn̩ˈ(j)u.ə.ɾi], [ˌkɑn.ʔn̩ˈ(j)u.ə.ɾi]
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • (Wales, Ottawa Valley) IPA(key): /ˌkɒn.tɪˈnɪu̯.ɪ.ti/
  • Hyphenation: con‧ti‧nu‧i‧ty
  • Rhymes: -uːɪti

Noun

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continuity (countable and uncountable, plural continuities)

  1. Lack of interruption or disconnection; the quality of being continuous in space or time.
    While troubleshooting the heating and cooling system, we found a lack of continuity in a circuit that is normally closed.
    Considerable continuity of attention is needed to read German philosophy.
    • 1946 March and April, “The Why and The Wherefore: "Fitted" and "Piped" Wagons”, in Railway Magazine, page 128:
      Vacuum-fitted wagons are provided with complete vacuum-brake equipment; "piped" wagons have through pipes, enabling them to be marshalled in vacuum-braked trains without interrupting the continuity of the vacuum brake connections, but are not provided themselves with vacuum brake gear.
    • 1959 March, “The 2,500 h.p. electric locomotives for the Kent Coast electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 123:
      As on Nos. 20001-3, the motor and generator armature shafts of the new locomotive each carry a heavy flywheel to provide kinetic energy and help maintain the speed of the motor-generator set during interruptions of supply, as at breaks in the continuity of the conductor rail.
    • 2025 May 8, David Gibson, “The New Pope Might Be Something Like the Old Pope”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN:
      With the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV, the College of Cardinals sent a clear message of continuity with the reformist agenda of his predecessor, Pope Francis.
  3. (uncountable, mathematics) A characteristic property of a continuous function.
    • 1911, William Anthony Granville, Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus:
      The definition of a continuous function assumes that the function is already defined for x = a. If this is not the case, however, it is sometimes possible to assign such a value to the function for x = a that the condition of continuity shall be satisfied.
  4. (uncountable, narratology) A narrative device in episodic fiction where previous and/or future events in a series of stories are accounted for in present stories.
    • 2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[2]:
      In “Treehouse Of Horror” episodes, the rules aren’t just different—they don’t even exist. If writers want Homer to kill Flanders or for a segment to end with a marriage between a woman and a giant ape, they can do so without worrying about continuity or consistency or fans griping that the gang is behaving out of character.
  5. (countable, narratology) A canon; one specific fictional universe within a multiverse.
    • 2025 January 20, Andrew Wheeler, “Marvel Confirms A Convergence Of Universes In 'Secret Wars'”, in Comics Alliance‎[3]:
      At a live filmed announcement at Midtown Comics in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso and executive editor Tom Brevoort announced a new status quo for the Marvel Universe, with worlds colliding to form a mish-mash of continuities that will be the setting for all Marvel comics from May 2015 onwards.
  6. (uncountable, film) Consistency between multiple shots depicting the same scene but possibly filmed on different occasions.
  7. (uncountable, radio, television) The announcements and messages inserted by the broadcaster between programmes.

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Adjective

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continuity (not comparable)

  1. (UK, chiefly politics) Being the successor to a no longer extant organization, operating under the same name and usually claiming to be the same entity.
    Synonym: continuing
    • 1999, Peter Taylor, Behind the Mask: The IRA and Sinn Fein:
      The irony that was one of the other republican splinter groups in the field, the Continuity IRA, also claimed by virtue of its name that it was the authentic IRA.
    • 2021 June 17, Alwyn Turner, All In It Together: England in the Early 21st Century, Profile Books, →ISBN:
      This new group looked like another of those which eked out a herbivorous existence in the scrubland just this side of the Monster Raving lunatic fringe, something akin to the continuity Liberal Party perhaps, or the yogic-flying, transcendentally meditating Natural Law Party.
    • 2025, Morgan Jones, “At the Battle of Ideas”, in London Review of Books‎[4]:
      Stalls lined the corridors: the continuity SDP was there, as was the Free Speech Union, along with countless anti-trans organisations.
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