consilience
con·si·li·ence/kənˈsɪ.li.əns/noun
consilience is spelled C-O-N-S-I-L-I-E-N-C-E: 11 letters and 4 syllables (con·si·li·ence). It appears about once in every 51 million words in written English, the 222,788th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, consilience means “The concurrence of multiple inductions drawn from different data sets” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of consilience is consiliences.
How many letters and syllables are in consilience?
| Letters | 11: C-O-N-S-I-L-I-E-N-C-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: con·si·li·ence |
| In writing | about once in every 51 million words; the 222,788th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is consilience?
Consilience appears about once in every 51 million words in written English, the 222,788th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce consilience?
- US /kənˈsɪ.li.əns/
Consilience has 4 syllables, split con·si·li·ence in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-consilience.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of consilience
- consiliences plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does consilience mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The concurrence of multiple inductions drawn from different data sets.
- 2
The agreement, co-operation, or overlap of academic disciplines.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Consilience in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense concurrence of multiple inductions:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | consilience |
| German | Konsilienz |
| Portuguese | consiliência |
| Spanish | consiliencia |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does consilience come from?
From Latin con- (prefix indicating a being or bringing together of several objects) + saliō (“to bound, jump, leap”) (modelled after resiliēns (“rebounding”)) + -ence, influenced by concurrent. Coined by English polymath William Whewell in 1840 in his book The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).