continuity

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Lack of interruption or disconnection; the quality of being continuous in space or time.

   “While troubleshooting the heating and cooling system, we found a lack of continuity in a circuit that is normally closed.”

   “Considerable continuity of attention is needed to read German philosophy.”

   “Vacuum-fitted wagons are provided with complete vacuum-brake equipment; "piped" wagons have through pipes, enabling them to be marshalled in vacuum-braked trains without interrupting the continuity of the vacuum brake connections, but are not provided themselves with vacuum brake gear.”

   “As on Nos. 20001-3, the motor and generator armature shafts of the new locomotive each carry a heavy flywheel to provide kinetic energy and help maintain the speed of the motor-generator set during interruptions of supply, as at breaks in the continuity of the conductor rail.”

   “With the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV, the College of Cardinals sent a clear message of continuity with the reformist agenda of his predecessor, Pope Francis.”

2. (uncountable)A characteristic property of a continuous function.

   “The definition of a continuous function assumes that the function is already defined for x = a. If this is not the case, however, it is sometimes possible to assign such a value to the function for x = a that the condition of continuity shall be satisfied.”

3. (uncountable)A narrative device in episodic fiction where previous and/or future events in a series of stories are accounted for in present stories.

   “In “Treehouse Of Horror” episodes, the rules aren’t just different—they don’t even exist. If writers want Homer to kill Flanders or for a segment to end with a marriage between a woman and a giant ape, they can do so without worrying about continuity or consistency or fans griping that the gang is behaving out of character.”

4. (countable)A canon; one specific fictional universe within a multiverse.

   “At a live filmed announcement at Midtown Comics in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso and executive editor Tom Brevoort announced a new status quo for the Marvel Universe, with worlds colliding to form a mish-mash of continuities that will be the setting for all Marvel comics from May 2015 onwards.”

5. (uncountable)Consistency between multiple shots depicting the same scene but possibly filmed on different occasions.
6. (uncountable)The announcements and messages inserted by the broadcaster between programmes.

adj

1. (UK, not-comparable)Being the successor to a no longer extant organization, operating under the same name and usually claiming to be the same entity.

   “The irony that was one of the other republican splinter groups in the field, the Continuity IRA, also claimed by virtue of its name that it was the authentic IRA.”

   “This new group looked like another of those which eked out a herbivorous existence in the scrubland just this side of the Monster Raving lunatic fringe, something akin to the continuity Liberal Party perhaps, or the yogic-flying, transcendentally meditating Natural Law Party.”

   “Stalls lined the corridors: the continuity SDP was there, as was the Free Speech Union, along with countless anti-trans organisations.”