congruity

American  

[kuhn-groo-i-tee, kon-, kuhng-, kong-] / kənˈgru ɪ ti, kɒn-, kəŋ-, kɒŋ- /

noun

plural

congruities

1. the state or quality of being congruous; harmony; appropriateness.

   a congruity of ideas.

2. the state or quality of being geometrically congruent.

3. a point of agreement.

4. Scholasticism. merit bestowed as a divine gift rather than earned.

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Other Word Forms

• noncongruity
  noun

Etymology

Origin of congruity

1350–1400; Middle English congruite < Middle French < Late Latin congruitāt- (stem of congruitās ), equivalent to Latin congru ( us ) congruous + -itāt- -ity

Explanation

Congruity is a quality of agreement and appropriateness. When there's congruity, things fit together in a way that makes sense. If a team has congruity, the players work together well, even if they don’t win. The word congruity is from the Old French congruité for "relevance and appropriateness." Students reading quietly in a library is an example of congruity. A clown juggling fire in a library would be an incongruity, which is when things don't fit together. A well-decorated room, where the colors complement each other, has congruity. Wearing a tuxedo to a classical music concert shows congruity: wearing a tux to a heavy metal concert would not.

Example Sentences

Congruity between his original and her mental versions was very often astonishingly close.

From Time Magazine Archive

Congruity, the subjection of the parts to the whole, and to the end in view—the doctrine of key—Hawthorne illustrates all this.

From Masters of the English Novel A Study of Principles and Personalities by Burton, Richard

A further explication of Congruity: And an attempt of solving the Ph�nomena of the strange Experiment of the suspension of the Mercury at a much greater height then thirty inches.

From Micrographia Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon by Hooke, Robert

Concrete, 135-44 Congruity, 3, 72 Connection, 7; see Relation.

From How We Think by Dewey, John

Here are points which—pray, Doctor, what's "Grace of Congruity?"

From The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore Collected by Himself with Explanatory Notes by Rossetti, William Michael