INCONSISTENT • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Inconsistent

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/ˌɪnkənsˈɪstənt/ Listen

adjective

Inconsistent adj.

Not consistent; showing inconsistency; irreconcilable; contradictory, or having contradictory implications; discordant; at variance, esp. as regards character, sentiment, or action; incompatible; incongruous. "Compositions of this nature... show that wisdom and virtue are far from being inconsistent with politeness and good humor."

Not exhibiting uniformity of sentiment, steadiness to principle, etc.; unequal; fickle; changeable. "Ah, how unjust to nature, and himself, Is thoughtless, thankless, inconsistent man."

Synonyms: Incompatible; incongruous; irreconcilable; discordant; repugnant; contradictory. Inconsistent, Incongruous, Incompatible. Things are incongruous when they are not suited to each other, so that their union is unbecoming; inconsistent when they are opposed to each other, so as render it improper or wrong; incompatible when they can not coexist, and it is therefore impossible to unite them. Habitual levity of mind is incongruous with the profession of a clergyman; it is inconsistent with his ordination vows; it is incompatible with his permanent usefulness. Incongruity attaches to the modes and qualities of things; incompatibility attaches to their essential attributes; inconsistency attaches to the actions, sentiments, etc., of men.

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Etymology of 'Inconsistent'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Inconsistent" Quotes from Famous Books

... so very inconsistent with the present State of the Place; we took Horse (for Mule-mounting was now out of Fashion) and rode to Saint Jean de Luz, where we found as great a difference in our Eating and Drinking, as we had before done in our ...

— Military Memoirs of Capt. George Carleton • Daniel Defoe

... Storting; the use of apostrophes for possessives is inconsistent; and a number of words are inconsistently hyphenated. Neither these nor the frequent ...

— The Swedish-Norwegian Union Crisis - A History with Documents • Karl Nordlund

... admits that "the plot is ... like those of the romances, and particularly like that of the 'Winter's Tale,' in dealing with a long series of tragic events leading to a happy ending," but endeavors to escape the inevitable conclusion, by the statement, utterly inconsistent with his own chronology, that, "if the play was as late as 1608, there is a possibility of Beaumont and Fletcher's influence just as in ...

— The Critics Versus Shakspere - A Brief for the Defendant • Francis A. Smith

... cabinet of St. James's, on their part, had not yet fulfilled one article of the treaty of Amiens, by placing Malta in the keeping of some power which had been neutral in the preceding war. The rejoinder was obvious: to wit, that Napoleon was every day taking measures wholly inconsistent with that balance of power which the treaty of Amiens contemplated. It is not to be denied that he, in his audaciously ambitious movements, had contrived to keep within the strict terms of the treaty: and it can as little be disputed that the English ...

— The History of Napoleon Buonaparte • John Gibson Lockhart

... to your Majesty, not from a want of a partial and passionate regard to that part of your empire in which we reside, and which we wish to be supreme, that we have hitherto withstood all attempts to render the supremacy of one part of your dominions inconsistent with the liberty and safety of all the rest. The motives of our opposition are found in those very sentiments which we are supposed to violate. For we are convinced beyond a doubt, that a system of dependence which leaves no security to the people for any part of their freedom in their own ...

— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VI. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

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