consensus

English

Alternative forms

• concensus (misspelling)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈsɛnsəs/

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

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

Antonyms

• dissensus

Derived terms

• anticonsensus
• consensual
• consensus ad idem
• consensus conference
• consensus national champion
• consensus reality
• consensus theorem
• consensus trance
• metaconsensus
• nonconsensus
• post-war consensus
• pseudoconsensus
• subconsensus

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sent- (perceive) (0 c, 83 e)

Collocations

Collocations with adjectives

• general consensus
• broad consensus
• universal consensus
• common consensus
• clear consensus
• little consensus
• popular consensus
• international consensus
• political consensus
• scientific consensus
• social consensus
• national consensus
• scholarly consensus
• silent consensus
• unspoken consensus

Translations

general agreement

• Arabic: إِجْمَاع (ar) m (ʔijmāʕ), تَوَافُق m (tawāfuq)
• Armenian: կոնսենսուս (hy) (konsensus), ընդհանուր համաձայնություն (əndhanur hamajaynutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: icma, konsensus, yekdillik
• Bulgarian: съгла́сие (bg) n (săglásie), единоду́шие (bg) n (edinodúšie), консе́нсус m (konsénsus)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 共識 / 共识 (zh) (gòngshí)

• Czech: shoda (cs) f, souhlas (cs) m, konsenzus (cs) m
• Danish: konsensus (da)
• Dutch: consensus (nl) m, eensgezindheid (nl), overeenstemming (nl)
• Esperanto: interkonsento
• Finnish: yhteisymmärrys (fi), konsensus (fi)
• French: consensus (fr) m
• Georgian: კონსენსუსი (ḳonsensusi)
• German: Konsens (de) m, Einvernehmen (de) n, Einigkeit (de) f, Übereinstimmung (de) f
• Gothic: 𐍃𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌵𐌹𐍃𐍃 f (samaqiss)
• Greek: ομοφωνία (el) f (omofonía), κοινή συναίνεση f (koiní synaínesi)
• Hebrew: קוֹנְצֶנְזוּס (he) (kontsénzus), (puristic) מִסְכָּם (miskám), הַסְכָּמָה כְּלָלִית (haskamá klalít, literally “general agreement”)
• Hindi: संप्रतिपत्ति (hi) f (sampratipatti)
• Hungarian: egyezség (hu)
• Icelandic: samstaða (is) f, samhljóða álit
• Indonesian: konsensus (id), kesepakatan (id)
• Italian: consenso (it) m
• Japanese: 総意 (ja) (そうい, sōi), 協心 (きょうしん, kyōshin), コンセンサス (ja) (konsensasu)
• Kazakh: бәтуа (bätuwa), бәтуаластық (bätuwalastıq), пәтуа (pätuwa), пәтуаластық (pätuwalastıq)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 합의(合意) (ko) (habui)
• Latin: consensus m
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Māori: tatūnga tokitoki
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: konsensus (no) m

  Nynorsk: konsensus m

• Persian: اجماع (fa) m (ejmâ')
• Polish: konsensus (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: consenso (pt) m
• Romanian: consens (ro) n
• Russian: консе́нсус (ru) m (konsɛ́nsus), согла́сие (ru) n (soglásije), единоду́шие (ru) n (jedinodúšije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: консѐнзус m, спо̏разӯм m

  Latin: konsènzus (sh) m, spȍrazūm (sh) m

• Slovene: dogovor
• Spanish: consenso (es) m
• Swedish: konsensus (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: konsensüs (tr)
• Ukrainian: консе́нсус m (konsénsus), зго́да f (zhóda)
• Vietnamese: sự đồng lòng, sự đồng thuận (vi), sự đồng tâm (vi), sự nhất trí (vi)

Verb

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.

Translations

Translations

• Spanish: consensuar (es)

Further reading

• “consensus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “consensus”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• Raymond Williams (1983), “Consensus”, in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, revised American edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1985, →ISBN, page 76.
• “consensus”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “consensus”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “consensus”, in Collins English Dictionary, 2011–present.
• “consensus” (US) / “consensus” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “consensus”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• consensus in Britannica Dictionary
• consensus in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary
• consensus in Sentence collocations by Cambridge Dictionary
• consensus in Ozdic collocation dictionary
• consensus in WordReference English Collocations

Dutch

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌkɔnˈsɛn.zʏs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: con‧sen‧sus

Noun

consensus m (uncountable, no diminutive)

1. consensus

Synonyms

• overeenstemming

Descendants

• → Papiamentu: kònsènsùs
• → Indonesian: konsènsus

French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.sɛ̃.sys/, /kɔ̃.sɑ̃.sys/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Noun

consensus m (invariable)

1. consensus

Further reading

• “consensus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Latin

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [kõːˈsẽː.sʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [konˈsɛn.sus]

Noun

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

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	cōnsēnsus	cōnsēnsūs
genitive	cōnsēnsūs	cōnsēnsuum
dative	cōnsēnsuī	cōnsēnsibus
accusative	cōnsēnsum	cōnsēnsūs
ablative	cōnsēnsū	cōnsēnsibus
vocative	cōnsēnsus	cōnsēnsūs

Synonyms

• (concord, agreement): concentus, concordātiō, concordia, concorditās, harmonia, ūnanimitās
• (plot, conspiracy): coitiō, coniūrātiō, cōnsēnsiō, cōnspīrātiō

Related terms

• cōnsēnsiō
• cōnsentāneē
• cōnsentāneus
• cōnsentiēns
• cōnsentiō

Descendants

• → English: consensus
• → French: consensus
• → Italian: consenso
• → Portuguese: consenso
• → Romanian: consens
• → Sicilian: cunzenzu
• → Spanish: consenso
• → Turkish: konsensüs

Adjective

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

1. (rare) agreed upon

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	cōnsēnsus	cōnsēnsa	cōnsēnsum		cōnsēnsī	cōnsēnsae	cōnsēnsa
genitive	cōnsēnsī	cōnsēnsae	cōnsēnsī		cōnsēnsōrum	cōnsēnsārum	cōnsēnsōrum
dative	cōnsēnsō	cōnsēnsae	cōnsēnsō		cōnsēnsīs
accusative	cōnsēnsum	cōnsēnsam	cōnsēnsum		cōnsēnsōs	cōnsēnsās	cōnsēnsa
ablative	cōnsēnsō	cōnsēnsā	cōnsēnsō		cōnsēnsīs
vocative	cōnsēnse	cōnsēnsa	cōnsēnsum		cōnsēnsī	cōnsēnsae	cōnsēnsa

References

• “consensus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “consensus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "consensus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “consensus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the perfect harmony of the universe: totius mundi convenientia et consensus
    
  • unanimously: uno, communi, summo or omnium consensu (Tusc. 1. 15. 35)
    
• “consensus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “consensus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin