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continuity
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French continuité, from Latin continuitas. By surface analysis, continu(e) + -ity.
Pronunciation
Noun
continuity (countable and uncountable, plural continuities)
- 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, →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.
- (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.
- (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):
- 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.
- (uncountable, film) Consistency between multiple shots depicting the same scene but possibly filmed on different occasions.
- (uncountable, radio, television) The announcements and messages inserted by the broadcaster between programmes.
Synonyms
- (lack of interruption): See also Thesaurus:continuity
Antonyms
- (antonym(s) of “lack of interruption”): discontinuity; see also Thesaurus:discontinuity
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
lack of interruption
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notion in mathematics
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