continuance
/kənˈtɪnjuəns/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.73 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An order issued by a court granting a postponement of a legal proceeding for a set period.
American usage; Countable
Example Sentences
- "Now stands the Brere like a lord alone, / Puffed up with pryde and vaine pleasaunce. / But all this glee had no continuaunce: / For eftsones winter gan to approche; / The blustering Boreas did encroche, / And beate upon the solitarie Brere; / For nowe no succoure was seene him nere."
- "In the living state, the body is observed to […] adopt most effectual measures for the permanent continuance of its species."
- "[…] the interview's continuance already had attracted observation from some topmen aloft and other sailors in the waist or further forward."
- "Universal Directory of Railway Officials and Railway Year Book, 1946-47. […] Although the preparation of the fifty-second edition of this well-known work proved a far from easy task, owing to the continuance of unsettled conditions in many parts of the world, the response to the endeavours of the publishers to obtain accurate and complete information has exceeded anything that would have been possible twelve months earlier."
- "There is little to report of changes on the Great Eastern Line other than deceleration, doubtless explained by continuance of the electrification work."
- "The gentlemen of the mission were present at a splendid festival, called "The Yam Custom." […] During the continuance of it, (as in the ancient Saturnalia) neither theft, intrigue, nor assault, are punishable, but licentiousness of every kind prevails."
Etymology
From Middle English continuance, contynuaunce, from Old French continuance, from continuer.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: continuance
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kənˈtɪnjuəns/
- British English: /kənˈtɪnjʊəns/
Usage
- Uncountable
- Countable
- American usage