constant

From Middle English constant, from Old French constant, from Latin constantem, accusative of constans, from cōnstāre (“to stand firm”). Displaced native Old English singal.

• (UK) enPR: kŏn'stənt IPA^(key): /ˈkɒnstənt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑnstənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

constant (comparative more constant, superlative most constant)

1. Unchanged through time or space; permanent.
2. Consistently recurring over time; persistent.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:continuous

   • 2013 November 16, Schumpeter, “The mindfulness business”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8862:

     The constant pinging of electronic devices is driving many people to the end of their tether. Electronic devices not only overload the senses and invade leisure time. They feed on themselves: the more people tweet the more they are rewarded with followers and retweets.

3. Steady in purpose, action, feeling, etc.
   • c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The Second Booke] Chapter 3”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC, folio 162, recto:

     Both loving one fair maid, they yet remained constant friends.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

     I am constant to my purposes.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Theodore and Honoria, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     His gifts, his constant courtship, nothing gained.

4. Firm; solid; not fluid.
   • 1659 December 30 (date written), Robert Boyle, New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air, and Its Effects, (Made, for the Most Part, in a New Pneumatical Engine) […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] H[enry] Hall, printer to the University, for Tho[mas] Robinson, published 1660, →OCLC:

     If […] you mix them, you may turn these two fluid liquors into a constant body.

5. (obsolete) Consistent; logical.
   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     I am no more mad than you are: make the trial of it with any constant question.

6. (computing, complexity theory) Bounded above by a constant.

   constant time   constant space

• (unchanged through time or space): nonchanging, unaltering, unvarying; see also Thesaurus:changeless

constant (plural constants)

1. That which is permanent or invariable.
2. (algebra) A quantity that remains at a fixed value throughout a given discussion.
   • 2015, Emanuel Carneiro, Damiano Foschi, Diogo Oliveira e Silva, Christoph Thiele, “A sharp trilinear inequality related to Fourier restriction on the circle”, in arXiv‎^[1]:

     We also establish that constants are local extremizers of the Tomas-Stein adjoint restriction inequality as well as of another inequality appearing in the program..

3. (sciences) Any property of an experiment, determined numerically, that does not change under given circumstances.
   • 2015, Lenny H.E. Winkel et al., “Selenium Cycling Across Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Interfaces: A Critical Review”, in Nutrients‎^[2], volume 7, →DOI:

     Based on their acid dissociation constants (pKa), seleneous^[sic] acid (H2SeO3) and selenic acid (H2SeO4) are anionic under common environmental conditions [48], e.g., as selenite (SeO32−) and selenate (SeO42−).

4. (computing) An identifier that is bound to an invariant value; a fixed value given a name to aid in readability of source code.

• constantly (adv)
• constancy (n)

• (computing) literal

Borrowed from Latin cōnstantem.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kunsˈtan]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [konsˈtant]
• Rhymes: -ant

constant m or f (masculine and feminine plural constants)

1. constant

   Antonym: inconstant

• constantment
• inconstant

• constància

constant f (plural constants)

1. constant

• “constant”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “constant”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “constant” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “constant” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

constant

1. gerund of constar

Borrowed from Middle French constant, from Latin cōnstāns.

• IPA^(key): /kɔnˈstɑnt/, /ˈkɔn.stɑnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: con‧stant
• Rhymes: -ɑnt

constant (comparative constanter, superlative constantst)

1. constant, invariable
2. constant, continuous, unceasing

• constante
• constantheid

• → Indonesian: konstan

From Latin cōnstantem.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃s.tɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: constants

constant (feminine constante, masculine plural constants, feminine plural constantes)

1. constant

• constamment

• constance

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

cōnstant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of cōnstō

Borrowed from French constant, from Latin constans.

constant m or n (feminine singular constantă, masculine plural constanți, feminine and neuter plural constante)

1. constant