continuitynoun/ˌkɒn.tɪˈnjuː.ɪ.ti/

• 1

  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.
• 2

  mathematicssciencesA 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

  human-scienceslinguisticsnarratologyA 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

  human-scienceslinguisticsnarratologyA 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

  broadcastingfilmmediaConsistency between multiple shots depicting the same scene but possibly filmed on different occasions.

• 6

  broadcastingmediaradioThe announcements and messages inserted by the broadcaster between programmes.

continuityadj/ˌkɒn.tɪˈnjuː.ɪ.ti/

• 1

  governmentpoliticsBeing 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.