Consensus Definition: When a Group Broadly Agrees

The senses of consensus

1. Shared opinion. The most common use: a view held by most people in a group. The consensus among the parents was that the school trip should go ahead.
2. A way of deciding. In consensus decision-making, a group talks until it finds an option everyone can live with, instead of letting the larger side outvote the smaller one.
3. Expert agreement. A scientific or medical consensus is the position that most researchers in a field accept after weighing the evidence.
4. A forecast average. In business news, the consensus estimate is the average of what many analysts predict for figures such as a company's quarterly earnings.

Examples in sentences

• After two hours of debate, the hostel committee reached a consensus on the new curfew.
• There is no consensus yet on whether the old bridge should be repaired or replaced.
• The manager tried to build consensus before announcing the shift changes.
• Results beat the consensus forecast, and the company's shares rose that afternoon.
• Our group chat has a rare consensus: nobody wants to cook this weekend.

Consensus definition compared with unanimity and majority

A majority decision can leave a large, unhappy minority. Unanimity is very hard to reach in big groups. Consensus sits between them: it aims for an outcome that people may not love but will not block. That is why many community groups and boards say they work by consensus.

Grammar, pairings and spelling

Consensus is usually singular: the consensus is, not the consensus are. Common verbs with it are reach, build, find, achieve and break. Common adjectives are broad, growing, clear, general and scientific. You also meet it as a modifier, as in consensus view, consensus candidate or consensus estimate.

• Spelling. It is consensus, with an s in the middle. The common error concensus comes from thinking of the word census, but the two are not related; consensus comes from consent.
• Consensus of opinion. Many style guides call this phrase redundant, because consensus already means agreement of opinion. Others accept it. In careful writing, plain consensus is safer.
• General consensus. This is common in speech and widely accepted, though some editors prefer to cut general.

Origin of the word

Consensus is a Latin word meaning agreement or accord. It comes from the past participle form of consentire, built from com-, together, and sentire, to feel. The picture behind it is a group sharing one feeling. An isolated English use appears in the 1630s, but the word became established in the 1850s, first in physiology for parts of the body working together, and from 1861 for agreement of opinion. The related verb consent is much older in English.

Where you hear about consensus

At work, consensus is a common goal in planning meetings, especially where teams depend on each other. In public life, reporters speak of a consensus forming, or breaking down, on topics such as budgets or public health rules; people often disagree about whether a claimed consensus really exists, and that argument over the label is a normal part of public talk. In science, a consensus is not a vote but the weight of evidence as judged by many experts, and it can change when new findings appear. In technology, a consensus mechanism is the method a network of computers uses to agree on a shared record.

Building agreement often needs empathy and good communication, and once a group agrees, members may be willing to comply more readily. Democracy, justice and other civic and legal vocabulary sit alongside it on this site.