dissensus

Syllables: dis·sen·sus/dɪˈsɛn.səs/

dissensus noun: disagreement, especially when widespread.

Noun

dissensus (usually uncountable, plural dissensuses)

(usually) Disagreement, especially when widespread.
- Now it is apparent that neither the consensus of Christianity with other religions, nor its dissensus from them, nor the absolute or relative superiority which we claim for it, can be made evident without a thorough and methodical comparison of all religions.1874, Edmund Spiess, “Comparative Study of Religions, in Its Bearing upon Christian Apologetics”, in Philip Schaff, S[amuel] Irenæus Prime, editors, History, Essays, Orations, and Other Documents of...
- Underlying a real and culturally meaningful general consensus about the wrongness of rape, there can indeed be many contextual dissensuses about rape being okay. Only when we allow a reified conception of consensus to drive out the nuanced understanding in the ethnographic literature of the way...1998, Gregg Barak, editor, Integrative Criminology (International Library of Criminology, Criminal Justice & Penology), Aldershot, Hampshire; Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, page 569

Underlying a real and culturally meaningful general consensus about the wrongness of rape, there can indeed be many contextual dissensuses about rape being okay.1998, Gregg Barak, editor, Integrative Criminology (International Library of Criminology, Criminal Justice & Penology), Aldershot...
In this chapter, we explore two forms of dissensus.2006, Virginia A. Hettinger, Stefanie A. Lindquist, Wendy L. Martinek, “Horizontal and Vertical Dissensus”, in Judging on a Collegial...
In parliamentary procedure dissensus and debate are institutionalised: no motion is approved without a thorough examination of and confrontation among imaginable alternatives.2014, Kari Palonen, José María Rosales, Tapani Turkka, “Introduction: The Parliamentary Politics of Dissensus”, in Kari Palonen, José María...

plural	dissensuses

From Latin dissēnsus (“disagreement, quarrel; dissension, conflict”); or a blend of dissent + consensus.

What does dissensus mean?: Dissensus means disagreement, especially when widespread.
How do you use dissensus in a sentence?: Underlying a real and culturally meaningful general consensus about the wrongness of rape, there can indeed be many contextual dissensuses about rape being okay.
What part of speech is dissensus?: Dissensus is a noun.
How do you pronounce dissensus?: Dissensus is pronounced /dɪˈsɛn.səs/ (UK).
What is the plural of dissensus?: The plural of dissensus is dissensuses.

Adapted from Wiktionary: dissensus (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: 2026-09-02

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