Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sequence or succession.
  • noun Logic The relation of consequent to antecedent; deduction.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of following, or the condition of being in a series; that which is consecutive; succession; sequence.
  • noun In logic, the relation of consequent to antecedent, or of effect to cause; deduction; consequenee.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A following, or sequel; actual or logical dependence.
  • noun obsolete A succession or series of any kind.
  • noun (Astron.) a month as reckoned from one conjunction of the moon with the sun to another.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun archaic A following, or sequel; actual or logical dependence.
  • noun obsolete A succession or series of any kind.
  • noun archaic sequence
  • noun logic The relation of consequent to antecedent.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English consecucioun, attainment, from Latin cōnsecūtiō, cōnsecūtiōn-, orderly sequence, from cōnsecūtus, past participle of cōnsequī, to follow closely; see consequent.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English consecucioun ("attainment"), from Latin consecutio ("effect, proper sequence, attainment"), from past participle of consequor ("to follow, result, reach")

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Examples

  • Surface Spherical, and that the flatting of the Surface in the middle is from the abatement of the waters pressure outwards, by the contrary indeavour of its gravity; it follows that the pressure in the middle must be less then on the sides; and therefore the consecution will be the same as in the former.

    Micrographia Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon Robert Hooke 1669

  • I found the use of ‘filthy’ twice in close consecution, which could be changed.

    CROSSING THE BRIDGE • by M.Sherlock 2008

  • The chapter also contains discussions of the kinds of consecution or consequence, problems of inference connected with the referents of terms used in consecutive sentences, and also on how to contradict a conditional sentence.

    Peter of Spain Spruyt, Joke 2007

  • The natural consecution of the Homeric images needs no exposition: it constitutes in itself one of the beauties of the work.

    The Iliad of Homer 2003

  • The style was the same, but there was no argument, no consecution and no power.

    Adam Phillips' Prescription: Bring Up Brilliant Babies 1998

  • We assert, then, that from a course or manner of instruction from which those characteristics of true study -- real work of the learner's faculties, and a just consecution of steps -- are largely omitted or excluded, the best sort of intellectual education can not, in the majority of instances, accrue.

    The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, May, 1862 Devoted To Literature And National Policy Various

  • Sometimes it is in a natural but rhythmic consecution of ideas.

    The Greatest English Classic 1912

  • Even those who bicycle or drive see these sights but rarely and with no consecution, since roads also avoid climbing save where they are forced to it, as over certain passes.

    The Path to Rome Hilaire Belloc 1911

  • The French "revue," as one sees it at the Folies-Bergère, done somewhat roughly and sketchily, strikes one most of all by its curious want of consecution, its entire reliance on the point of this or that scene, costume, or performer.

    Plays, Acting and Music A Book Of Theory Arthur Symons 1905

  • Lamb's defects were his qualities, and nature drove them inward, concentrating, fortifying, intensifying them; to a not wholly normal or healthy brain, freakish and without consecution, adding a stammering tongue which could not speak evenly, and had to do its share, as the brain did, 'by fits.'

    Figures of Several Centuries Arthur Symons 1905

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