Word.ws English Dictionary

consist in

consist in verb: to have the thing mentioned as the only or most important part.

Verb

consist in (third-person singular simple present consists in, present participle consisting in, simple past and past participle consisted in)

  1. To have the thing mentioned as the only or most important part.
    • Tolerance consists in respecting other people’s opinions.
    • When you read their writings, life appears to consist in a warm sun and a garden of roses, — in the smiles and frowns of a fair enemy, and the fire that consumes your own heart.1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Forms of consist in

third-person singular presentconsists in
present participleconsisting in
past participleconsisted in
pastconsisted in

Questions about consist in

What does consist in mean?
Consist in means to have the thing mentioned as the only or most important part.
What part of speech is consist in?
Consist in is a verb.
What is the past tense of consist in?
The past tense of consist in is consisted in.

Words near consist in in the dictionary

  1. consimilitude
  2. consimilitudes
  3. consimility
  4. consing
  5. consist
  6. consist in
  7. consist of
  8. consistant
  9. consistantly
  10. consisted
  11. consisted in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: consist in (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “consist in.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/consist_in. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.