inconsistency
Americannoun
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inconsistencies
plural
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the quality or condition of being inconsistent.
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an inconsistent thing, action, remark, etc.
noun
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lack of consistency or agreement; incompatibility
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an inconsistent feature or quality
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logic
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the property of being inconsistent
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a self-contradictory proposition
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Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of inconsistency
First recorded in 1640–50; in- 3 + consistency
Explanation
When there's inconsistency, things are not the same. An example of inconsistency in parenting might be when parents give different allowances to kids who are the same age. There's a lot of inconsistency in the world. Some restaurants will serve delicious food most of the time, but not all the time. Teachers in different classes will have different rules for what is expected. Another type of inconsistency is between ideas or propositions. For example, if you want to lose weight but cannot stop eating donuts, there is a major inconsistency between those two ideas. Anywhere you find things that are changing or varying, there is inconsistency.
Vocabulary lists containing inconsistency
TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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"How Smart Are Animals?" Vocabulary from the science article
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The Last Cuentista
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The inconsistency on offense, though, has been a source of frustration for Lara.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
The punishment shows a further inconsistency with the treatment of United States forward Folarin Balogun.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
The detective noted the inconsistency, which Bušić attributed to not sleeping for “four or five days.”
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
"There is so much inconsistency at the moment with VAR and decisions and how far you go back to pull a decision," Egyptian football expert Ahmad Yousef told BBC Radio 5 Live.
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
“It’s well enough for me to go out with Laurie, but not well enough to go to the Hummels’,” said Jo, laughing, but looking a little ashamed of her inconsistency.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Observers quickly pointed out inconsistencies in the timeline: Talarico attended a Dallas concert for country artist Kacey Musgraves that same day – and campaigned in Austin the day before.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
OpenAI’s investors had reportedly tried to compare its annualized revenue with that of rival Anthropic, but because the frontier labs calculate this number differently, that led to inconsistencies, according to the Financial Times.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
Their sights seem to be set on perjury, seeking desperately to find inconsistencies in Smith’s recollection of his criminal investigations.
From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2026
But new allegations and inconsistencies continued to surface.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Even their personal inconsistencies seemed like photographic negatives of each other’s.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
