n. A standing aloof. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } [ OF. advertence, avertence, LL. advertentia, fr. L. advertens. See Advertent. ] The act of adverting, of the quality of being advertent; attention; notice; regard; heedfulness. [ 1913 Webster ]

To this difference it is right that advertence should be had in regulating taxation. J. S. Mill. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. appétence. See Appetency. ] A longing; a desire; especially an ardent desire; appetite; appetency. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. armipotentia, fr. armipotents. ] Power in arms. [ R. ] Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Centripetency. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Existence at the same time with another; -- contemporary existence. [ 1913 Webster ]

Without the help, or so much as the coexistence, of any condition. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ , n. [ Cf. F. compétence, from L. competentia agreement. ] 1. The state of being competent; fitness; ability; adequacy; power. [ 1913 Webster ]

The loan demonstrates, in regard to instrumental resources, the competency of this kingdom to the assertion of the common cause. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

To make them act zealously is not in the competence of law. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Property or means sufficient for the necessaries and conveniences of life; sufficiency without excess. [ 1913 Webster ]

Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words -- health, peace, and competence. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Law) (a) Legal capacity or qualifications; fitness; as, the competency of a witness or of a evidence. (b) Right or authority; legal power or capacity to take cognizance of a cause; as, the competence of a judge or court. Kent. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. the quality of being adequately or well qualified physically and intellectually, especially possession of the skill and knowledge required (for a task). [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

{ , n. [ Cf. F. consistance. ] 1. The condition of standing or adhering together, or being fixed in union, as the parts of a body; existence; firmness; coherence; solidity. [ 1913 Webster ]

Water, being divided, maketh many circles, till it restore itself to the natural consistence. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

We are as water, weak, and of no consistence. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

The same form, substance, and consistency. T. Burnet. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A degree of firmness, density, viscosity, or spissitude; a measure of the ability to hold together when manipulated.
Syn. -- body. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let the expressed juices be boiled into the consistence of a sirup. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which stands together as a united whole; a combination. [ 1913 Webster ]

The church of God, as meaning the whole consistence of orders and members. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Firmness of constitution or character; substantiality; durability; persistency. [ 1913 Webster ]

His friendship is of a noble make and a lasting consistency. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Agreement or harmony of all parts of a complex thing among themselves, or of the same thing with itself at different times; the harmony of conduct with profession; congruity; correspondence; as, the consistency of laws, regulations, or judicial decisions; consistency of opinions; consistency of conduct or of character. [ 1913 Webster ]

That consistency of behavior whereby he inflexibly pursues those measures which appear the most just. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

Consistency, thou art a jewel. Popular Saying. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. existence. ] 1. The state of existing or being; actual possession of being; continuance in being; as, the existence of body and of soul in union; the separate existence of the soul; immortal existence. [ 1913 Webster ]

The main object of our existence. Lubbock. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Continued or repeated manifestation; occurrence, as of events of any kind; as, the existence of a calamity or of a state of war. [ 1913 Webster ]

The existence therefore, of a phenomenon, is but another word for its being perceived, or for the inferred possibility of perceiving it. J. S. Mill. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which exists; a being; a creature; an entity; as, living existences. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Power over fire. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. impenitentia: cf. F. impénitence. ] The condition of being impenitent; failure or refusal to repent; hardness of heart. [ 1913 Webster ]

He will advance from one degree of wickedness and impenitence to another. Rogers. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ L. impotenia inability, poverty, lack of moderation. See Impotent. ] 1. The quality or condition of being impotent; lack of strength or power, animal, intellectual, or moral; weakness; feebleness; inability; imbecility. [ 1913 Webster ]

Some were poor by impotency of nature; as young fatherless children, old decrepit persons, idiots, and cripples. Hayward. [ 1913 Webster ]

O, impotence of mind in body strong! Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Lack of self-restraint or self-control. [ R. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Law & Med.) Lack of procreative power; inability to copulate, or beget children; also, sometimes, sterility; barrenness; specifically, in males: the inability to achieve or sustain a penile erection; erectile dysfunction. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

{ pl. -ces /plu>, pl. -cies /plu>, } n. [ Cf. F. inadvertance. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The quality of being inadvertent; lack of heedfulness or attentiveness; inattention; negligence; as, many mistakes proceed from inadvertence. [ 1913 Webster ]

Inadvertency, or lack of attendance to the sense and intention of our prayers. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An effect of inattention; a result of carelessness; an oversight, mistake, or fault from negligence. [ 1913 Webster ]

The productions of a great genius, with many lapses an inadvertencies, are infinitely preferable to works of an inferior kind of author which are scrupulously exact. Addison.

Syn. -- Inattention; heedlessness; carelessness; negligence; thoughtlessness. See Inattention. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ Pref. in- not + appetence: cf. F. inappétence. ] Lack of appetency; lack of desire. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of not coexisting. [ Obs. ] Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ Cf. F. incompétence. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The quality or state of being incompetent; lack of physical, intellectual, or moral ability; lack of qualifications or training (for a particular task); insufficiency; inadequacy; as, the incompetency of a child for hard labor, or of an idiot for intellectual efforts. “Some inherent incompetency.” Gladstone.
Syn. -- incompetence. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) Lack of competency or legal fitness; incapacity; disqualification, as of a person to be heard as a witness, or to act as a juror, or of a judge to try a cause.

Syn. -- Inability; insufficiency; inadequacy; disqualification; incapability; unfitness. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Inconsistency. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Pref. in- in + existence. ] [ Obs. ] (a) Inherence; subsistence. Bp. Hall. (b) That which exists within; a constituent. A. Tucker. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Pref. in- in + existence: cf. F. inexistence. ] Lack of being or existence. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of insisting, or being urgent or pressing; the act of dwelling upon as of special importance; persistence; urgency. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. intermittence. ] Act or state of intermitting; intermission. Tyndall. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Latency. Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Met- + encephalon. ] (Anat.) The posterior part of the brain, including the medulla; the afterbrain. Sometimes abbreviated to meten. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Inadvertence. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The state of not existing; absence of existence; the negation of being; -- usually used with reference to existince in the real world, or logical possiblity; as, the nonexistence of vaporware does not go unnoticed long. A. Baxter.
Syn. -- nonentity{ 1 }. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

2. A thing that has no existence. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ L. omnipotentia: cf. F. omnipotence. ] 1. The state of being omnipotent; almighty power; hence, one who is omnipotent; the Deity. [ 1913 Webster ]

Will Omnipotence neglect to save
The suffering virtue of the wise and brave? Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Unlimited power of a particular kind; as, love's omnipotence. Denham. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. pénitence, L. paenitentia. See Penitent, and cf. Penance. ] The quality or condition of being penitent; the disposition of a penitent; sorrow for sins or faults; repentance; contrition. “Penitence of his old guilt.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Death is deferred, and penitenance has room
To mitigate, if not reverse, the doom. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Repentance; contrition; compunction. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. pénitencier. ] A priest who heard confession and enjoined penance in extraordinary cases. [ Written also penitenser. ] [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ See Persistent. ] 1. The quality or state of being persistent; staying or continuing quality; hence, in an unfavorable sense, doggedness; obstinacy. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The continuance of an effect after the cause which first gave rise to it is removed; as: (a) (Physics) The persistence of motion. (b) (Physiol.) Visual persistence, or persistence of the visual impression; auditory persistence, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. The quality or state of being plenipotent. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Anat.) The metencephalon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Subsequent existence. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F., fr. LL. potentia staff, crutch, L., might, power. See Potency. ] Potency; capacity. [ R. ] Sir W. Hamilton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Existence in a former state, or previous to something else. [ 1913 Webster ]

Wisdom declares her antiquity and preëxistence to all the works of this earth. T. Burnet. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Existence of the soul before its union with the body; -- a doctrine held by certain philosophers. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ LL. praetensus, for L. praetentus, p. p. of praetendere. See Pretend, and cf. Tension. ] 1. The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Primogeniture can not have any pretense to a right of solely inheriting property or power. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

I went to Lambeth with Sir R. Brown's pretense to the wardenship of Merton College, Oxford. Evelyn. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act of holding out, or offering, to others something false or feigned; presentation of what is deceptive or hypocritical; deception by showing what is unreal and concealing what is real; false show; simulation; as, pretense of illness; under pretense of patriotism; on pretense of revenging Cæsar's death. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which is pretended; false, deceptive, or hypocritical show, argument, or reason; pretext; feint. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let not the Trojans, with a feigned pretense
Of proffered peace, delude the Latian prince. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Intention; design. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

A very pretense and purpose of unkindness. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ See the Note under Offense. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Mask; appearance; color; show; pretext; excuse. -- Pretense, Pretext. A pretense is something held out as real when it is not so, thus falsifying the truth. A pretext is something woven up in order to cover or conceal one's true motives, feelings, or reasons. Pretext is often, but not always, used in a bad sense. [ 1913 Webster ]

n., a., a. See Pretense, Pretenseful, Pretenseless. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ Cf. F. rénitence. ] The state or quality of being renitent; resistance; reluctance. Sterne. [ 1913 Webster ]

We find a renitency in ourselves to ascribe life and irritability to the cold and motionless fibers of plants. E. Darwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Inherent existence; existence possessed by virtue of a being's own nature, and independent of any other being or cause; -- an attribute peculiar to God. Blackmore. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F., from L. sententia, for sentientia, from sentire to discern by the senses and the mind, to feel, to think. See Sense, n., and cf. Sentiensi. ] 1. Sense; meaning; significance. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Tales of best sentence and most solace. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

The discourse itself, voluble enough, and full of sentence. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (a) An opinion; a decision; a determination; a judgment, especially one of an unfavorable nature. [ 1913 Webster ]

My sentence is for open war. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

That by them [ Luther's works ] we may pass sentence upon his doctrines. Atterbury. [ 1913 Webster ]

(b) A philosophical or theological opinion; a dogma; as, Summary of the Sentences; Book of the Sentences. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Law) In civil and admiralty law, the judgment of a court pronounced in a cause; in criminal and ecclesiastical courts, a judgment passed on a criminal by a court or judge; condemnation pronounced by a judicial tribunal; doom. In common law, the term is exclusively used to denote the judgment in criminal cases. [ 1913 Webster ]

Received the sentence of the law. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A short saying, usually containing moral instruction; a maxim; an axiom; a saw. Broome. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Gram.) A combination of words which is complete as expressing a thought, and in writing is marked at the close by a period, or full point. See Proposition, 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Sentences are simple or compound. A simple sentence consists of one subject and one finite verb; as, “The Lord reigns.” A compound sentence contains two or more subjects and finite verbs, as in this verse: - [ 1913 Webster ]

He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

Dark sentence, a saying not easily explained. [ 1913 Webster ]

A king . . . understanding dark sentences. Dan. vii. 23. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Sentenced p. pr. & vb. n. Sentencing ] 1. To pass or pronounce judgment upon; to doom; to condemn to punishment; to prescribe the punishment of. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nature herself is sentenced in your doom. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To decree or announce as a sentence. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To utter sententiously. [ Obs. ] Feltham. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Education) A method of teaching reading by giving first attention to phrases and sentences and later analyzing these into their verbal and alphabetic components; -- contrasted with alphabet method and word method. See also phonics. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. One who pronounced a sentence or condemnation. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. subsistance, L. subsistentia. ] 1. Real being; existence. [ 1913 Webster ]

Not only the things had subsistence, but the very images were of some creatures existing. Stillingfleet. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Inherency; as, the subsistence of qualities in bodies. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which furnishes support to animal life; means of support; provisions, or that which produces provisions; livelihood; as, a meager subsistence. [ 1913 Webster ]

His viceroy could only propose to himself a comfortable subsistence out of the plunder of his province. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Theol.) Same as Hypostasis, 2. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Mil.) A staff department of the United States army charged, under the supervision of the Chief of Staff, with the purchasing and issuing to the army of such supplies as make up the ration. It also supplies, for authorized sales, certain articles of food and other minor stores. It is commanded by any officer of the rank of brigadier general, called commissary general, and the department is popularly called the Commissary Department. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]