constant

Unchanged through time or space; permanent.

Adjective

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

    Synonyms: amaranthine solid ceaseless constant continual continuate continuous dreich endless eternal everlasting extended incessant incessive infinite never-ending nonstop ongoing perpetual persistent relentless steady still termless

  3. Steady in purpose, action, feeling, etc.
    • Both loving one fair maid, they yet remained constant friends. - c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The Second Booke] Chapter 3”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors,...
    • I am constant to my purposes. - c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
    • His gifts, his constant courtship, nothing gained. - 1700, [John] Dryden, “Theodore and Honoria, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
  4. Firm; solid; not fluid.
    • If […] you mix them, you may turn these two fluid liquors into a constant body. - 1659 December 30 (date written), Robert Boyle, New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air, and Its Effects […],...
  5. Consistent; logical.
    • I am no more mad than you are: make the trial of it with any constant question. - c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
  6. Bounded above by a constant.
    • constant time constant space

Origin

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

Forms

more constant most constant

Synonyms

nonchanging unaltering unvarying

Derived

constantive constant morphism constantness constant of integration constant speed drive constant speedism constant-speed propeller constant time constant-velocity constant velocity constant-wear garment multiconstant nonconstant thermoconstant unconstant uniconstant

Noun

  1. That which is permanent or invariable.
  2. A quantity that remains at a fixed value throughout a given discussion or operation.
    • 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.. - 2015, Emanuel Carneiro, Damiano Foschi, Diogo...

    Antonyms: variable

    Coordinate Terms: parameter metaparameter

  3. Any property of an experiment, determined numerically, that does not change under given circumstances.
    • 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−). -...

    Coordinate Terms: parameter metaparameter

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

Forms

constants

Related

constantly constancy literal

Derived

absolute constant acid dissociation constant Apéry's constant Archimedes' constant Avogadro constant Avogadro's constant Boltzmann constant Boltzmann's constant Brun's constant Catalan's constant Chaitin's constant Champernowne constant constant function constant of integration constant problem Conway's constant Copeland-Erdős constant cosmological constant Coulomb's constant de Bruijn-Newman constant decay constant dielectric constant Dirac constant Dirac's constant