Other forms: consequences
A consequence is what comes after — the thing that happens because of something you did. Miss the last train and the consequence is an hour's walk home in the rain.
Nothing in the word says the result must be bad, but it leans that way: face the consequences and suffer the consequences are far commoner than the cheerful version, and the fixed phrases take the plural. The one to learn for writing is as a consequence of, which does the work of 'because of' in a report or an essay, with consequently opening the next sentence. There is a second, formal sense — importance. A man of no consequence has no standing; a matter of little consequence does not matter. And the pattern is a consequence OF something.
1nounconsequenceA result that follows from an action or a situation.
“One consequence of the new law is longer queues at the border.”
2nounimportanceImportance or significance.
“It was a scratch of no consequence, and he forgot about it by lunchtime.”
synonyms: importance, significance
consequence is a result.
Consequence came through Old French from Latin consequentia, built on con and the stem that also gives English sequence, from a Proto-Indo-European root *sekʷ-, 'to follow'. A consequence is the thing that comes following along behind.
Proto-Indo-European
*sekʷ-
Latin
consequentia
Old French
consequence
Middle English
consequence
English, today
consequence
From Middle English consequence, from Old French consequence, from Latin consequentia. While analysable as con + sequence, its adjective form has a different origin.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA