consensus - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Borrowed from Latin cōnsēnsus (“agreement, accordance, unanimity”), from cōnsentiō (“feel together; agree”); see consent.

consensus (countable and uncountable, plural consensuses or **consensus)

  1. A process of decision-making that seeks widespread agreement among group members.
  2. General agreement among the members of a given group or community, each member of which exercises some discretion in decision-making and follow-up action.
    reach consensus
    After years of debate over the best wine to serve at Thanksgiving, no real consensus has emerged.
  3. (computing) An agreement on some data value that is needed during computation.
  4. (attributive) Average projected value.
    a financial consensus forecast

Category English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sent- (feel) not found

Collocations with adjectives

general agreement

consensus (third-person singular simple present consensuses, present participle consensusing, simple past and past participle consensused)

  1. (ambitransitive) To seek consensus; to hold discussions with the aim of reaching mutual agreement.
    • 1975, United States Bureau of the Census, The Census Bureau, page 168:
      I think we are a strongly consensused society. There was a consensus during the 1950's, the Eisenhower years, in our society. Then in the 1960's came a period of division.
    • 1992, United States House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Subcommittee on Environment, The Science of Wetland Definition and Delineation: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Environment of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, First Session, November 12, 1991, page 185:
      None of this consensusing was done with the Manual. There were no national workshops, forums, etc.

Borrowed from Latin cōnsēnsus or English consensus, itself borrowed from Latin.

consensus m (uncountable, no diminutive)

  1. consensus

Borrowed from Latin cōnsēnsus (“agreement, accordance, unanimity”).

consensus m (invariable)

  1. consensus

From cōnsentiō (“feel together; agree”), from con- (“together”) and sentiō (“sense; perceive; feel”).

cōnsēnsus m (genitive **cōnsēnsūs); fourth declension

  1. Consensus, agreement, accordance, unanimity, concord, harmony.
    Synonyms: cōnsēnsiō, concordia, cōnspīrātiō, congruentia
    Antonyms: discordia, dissidentia, dissēnsiō
  2. A plot, conspiracy.
    Synonyms: cōnsēnsiō, cōnspīrātiō, coniūrātiō

Fourth-declension noun.

cōnsēnsus (feminine cōnsēnsa, neuter cōnsēnsum); first/second-declension adjective

  1. (rare) agreed upon

First/second-declension adjective.