Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The state or quality of being eccentrically variable or fickle.
- noun An instance of being eccentrically variable or fickle.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Lack of constancy in action, feeling, etc.; mutability or instability; unsteadiness; fickleness: as, the inconstancy of a flame, or of one's temper.
- noun Lack of sameness or uniformity; dissimilitude.
- noun Synonyms Changeableness, vacillation, wavering.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality or state of being inconstant; lack of constancy; mutability; fickleness; variableness.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Lack of
constancy ; lack ofconsistency inthought ,emotion oraction .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun unfaithfulness by virtue of being unreliable or treacherous
- noun the quality of being changeable and variable
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Such people deserve no pity; for, after all, inconstancy is unpardonable.
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Would you call it inconstancy on their part to seek it wherever it might be found?
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The world, as it has been, is and will be constant in inconstancy; for
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721
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Moreover, his inconstancy is a proof of his rashness, because he is soon displeased with himself for what he has done.
Commentary on Genesis - Volume 1 1509-1564 1996
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A certain school of philosophy -- if we may give that name to the systematic neglect of reason -- has so immersed itself in the contemplation of this sort of inconstancy, which is indeed prevalent enough in the world, that it has mistaken it for a normal and necessary process.
The Life of Reason George Santayana 1907
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It is the end of art to give the superior life of form to that which has it not; and finally, this superior life of form, this magic wand of style, rhythmic as verse and terse as science, by firmly establishing the thing it touches, withdraws it from that law of change, constant in its inconstancy, which is the miserable condition of existence.
Madame Bovary A Tale of Provincial Life Gustave Flaubert 1850
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She thinks, indeed, but little of anything except with reference to herself, and what gives her an air, and will give her a character, for inconstancy, that is in fact the mere result of seeking her own gratification alike in meeting or avoiding her connexions.
The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay — Volume 3 Fanny Burney 1796
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Hence the inconstancy which is opposed thereto is to be reckoned a daughter of lust.
Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province Aquinas Thomas
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The history of Monmouth would alone suffice to refute the Imputation of inconstancy which is so frequently thrown on the common people.
The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 1 Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay 1829
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After much consideration he could derive this behaviour from nothing better than a capriciousness in his friend's temper, from a kind of inconstancy of mind, which makes men grow weary of their friends with no more reason than they often are of their mistresses.
Amelia — Complete Henry Fielding 1730
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