Concordance

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kənˈkɔːdəns/

Definitions

1. A state of agreement or harmony between people, things, or ideas; an alphabetical index of words in a text showing where each occurs
2. A compiled index displaying word frequencies and positions within a text, or the condition of being in accord and consonant with one another
3. An agreement or harmony among individuals or concepts is matched by a systematic index that lists occurrences of words in a text

Etymology: Medieval scholars built the first concordances of the Bible, and the word for them came from a Latin verb meaning "to agree." The Latin "concordare" combined "cum" ("together") with "cor" ("heart"), so to be in concord was literally to be of one heart. From it came the Late Latin "concordantia," meaning agreement or harmony, which passed into Old French as "concordance" and then into English. The word's two senses grew from that same agreement. Its sense of harmony between people or things stayed close to the Latin, while its sense of a compiled index came later, when a text's words were gathered and matched so that they agreed, or corresponded, with their locations in the book. A concordance of this kind shows each word alongside every place it appears, so readers can trace a term through an entire work.

Synonyms: agreement, harmony, accord, congruence, consensus

Antonyms: disagreement, discord, conflict, dissonance, division