consensus
- 01 C1 Advanced
n.a general agreement among a group of people.
n.general agreement or concord among the members of a group or community.
Simple“After a long discussion, the committee finally reached a consensus on the new rules.”
In context“The scientific consensus regarding climate change has strengthened significantly over the last decade as more empirical data has become available.”
UsageOften used with the verbs 'reach', 'build', or 'achieve'.
PitfallThe group reached to a consensus. The group reached a consensus.The verb 'reach' is transitive here; do not use the preposition 'to' before the noun.
Antonyms - 02 C2 Proficiency
n.an agreement on a specific piece of data during a computer process.
n.the process of achieving agreement on a single data value among distributed processes or systems.
Simple“The servers must reach a consensus before the transaction can be completed.”
In context“Distributed ledgers rely on a consensus mechanism to ensure that every node in the network maintains an identical copy of the database.”
UsageCommonly appears in the phrase 'consensus mechanism' or 'consensus algorithm'.
- 03 C2 Proficiency
v.to talk with others in order to reach a group agreement.
v.to engage in discussions or negotiations with the specific intent of reaching a collective agreement.
Simple“The leaders spent the afternoon consensusing on the final version of the treaty.”
In context“The board members spent several hours consensusing the proposed budget before putting it to a formal vote.”
UsageThis verb use is much less common than the noun form and is restricted to highly formal or bureaucratic contexts.
Usage general consensus · reach consensus
“The current expert consensus is that perimenopausal symptoms are not histamine-driven, says Huang.”
“The negotiations have tested to the limit the UN consensus system – which requires all countries to sign up to the final agreement.”
Borrowed from Latin cōnsēnsus (“agreement, accordance, unanimity”), from cōnsentiō (“feel together; agree”); see consent.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.