[f. next: see -ENCE.] The fact of ‘jumping together’ or agreeing; coincidence, concurrence; said of the accordance of two or more inductions drawn from different groups of phenomena.
1840. Whewell, Philos. Induct. Sc., II. 230. Accordingly the cases in which inductions from classes of facts altogether different have thus jumped together, belong only to the best established theories which the history of science contains. And, as I shall have occasion to refer to this particular feature in their evidence, I will take the liberty of describing it by a particular phrase; and will term it the Consilience of Inductions. Ibid. (1847), Hist. Induct. Sc., II. 582. Such coincidences, or consiliences … are the test of truth.
1861. Mill, Utilit., 94. The consilience of the results of both these processes, each corroborating and verifying the other.
