continuity

Borrowed from Middle French continuité.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkɒntɪˈnjuːəti/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌkɑntɪˈn(j)uːəti/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

continuity (countable and uncountable, plural continuities)

1. Lack of interruption or disconnection; the quality of being continuous in space or time.

   Considerable continuity of attention is needed to read German philosophy.

2. (uncountable, mathematics) A characteristic property of a continuous function.
   • 1911, William Anthony Granville, Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus:

     The definition of a continuous function assumes that the function is already defined for x = a. If this is not the case, however, it is sometimes possible to assign such a value to the function for x = a that the condition of continuity shall be satisfied.

3. (narratology) A narrative device in episodic fiction where previous and/or future events in a series of stories are accounted for in present stories.
   • 2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎:

     In “Treehouse Of Horror” episodes, the rules aren’t just different—they don’t even exist. If writers want Homer to kill Flanders or for a segment to end with a marriage between a woman and a giant ape, they can do so without worrying about continuity or consistency or fans griping that the gang is behaving out of character.

4. (uncountable, film) Consistency between multiple shots depicting the same scene but possibly filmed on different occasions.

• (lack of interruption): See also Thesaurus:continuity

• (lack of interruption): discontinuity; see also Thesaurus:discontinuity

• continuity announcer
• discontinuity
• sequential continuity
• uniform continuity

• continue
• continual
• continuousness