dissensus

/dɪˈsɛn.səs/

Etymology

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

dissensus means disagreement, especially when widespread. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 85 out of 100.

Why this word is great

DISSENSUS — [Noun] A state of widespread and fundamental disagreement or difference of opinion, a structured opposition that precludes consensus. From Latin dissēnsus ("disagreement, dissension"), or a modern English blend of dissent and consensus. Unlike "consensus," which denotes a settled, often hard-won harmony, or "discord," which implies a cacophony of personal strife, dissensus is the formal, fertile ground where incompatible principles are held in a sustained and necessary tension. It is the foundational gridlock of a democratic legislature, the stubbornly contradictory annotations in the margin of a shared text, and the quiet, unbridgeable chasm between two people reading the same book in the same room. It is not the breakdown of order, but the engine of a living order—the acknowledgment that some truths are plural, and coherence is sometimes a polite fiction.

noun

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.”