Other forms: continuities
Continuity is the quality of going on without a break. Continuity of care, a continuity error, ensure continuity.
In film it means keeping details consistent between shots, and a continuity error is the glass that refills itself between cuts — spotting them is a whole hobby. In medicine, continuity of care means seeing the same clinician, which measurably improves outcomes. In business, continuity planning is preparing for disruption. Note that the Latin means holding together.
1nouncontinuityThe quality of going on without a break.
“The new manager promised continuity, saying the team's style of play would not change.”
2nounseeingSeeing the same person or system throughout.
“Patients value continuity, so they like to see the same doctor every time.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
continuity is a quality of unbrokenness.
Latin continuitas comes from continuus, uninterrupted, from continere, to hold together — com plus tenere, to hold. Contain and continent come from the same holding.
Latin
continuitas
Middle French
continuité
English, today
continuity
Borrowed from Middle French continuité, from Latin continuitas. by surface analysis, continu(e) + continue + ity.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA