Meaning & use
consent
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Meanings
noununcountable
Agreement that you freely give to let something happen or to let someone do something.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: she gave her consent, not a consent.
Patterns
- consent to something
- give consent for something
- with someone's consent
Doctors must get a patient's consent before starting treatment.
You cannot use my photo on your website without my consent.
The two parties reached a settlement by mutual consent.
verbintransitiveformal
To agree to something, or to allow it to happen, after being asked.
Grammar: Usually followed by to: she consented to the interview.
Patterns
- consent to something
- consent to do something
The owner finally consented to a short inspection of the building.
Parents must consent before their child joins the trial.
He would not consent to being photographed.
Word forms
| third person singular | consents |
|---|---|
| past tense | consented |
| past participle | consented |
| -ing form | consenting |
Common combinations
- informed consent
- The study required informed consent from every volunteer.
- written consent
- Written consent from a parent is needed for the school trip.
- age of consent
- The age of consent differs from country to country.
- withhold consent
- The council may withhold consent if the plans are unsafe.
- by common consent
- By common consent, she was the best player on the team.
- consenting adults
- The law does not interfere with what consenting adults do in private.
Synonyms and how they differ
- permission
- Permission is the everyday word for being allowed, whereas consent stresses a free and informed choice, often in legal or medical settings.
- approval
- Approval suggests someone judges something to be good, while consent only means they agree to let it happen.
- assent
- Assent is more formal and often means simple agreement to a proposal, while consent implies authority to decide.
- agree
- Agree is the ordinary verb and can describe sharing an opinion, but consent only means allowing an action.
Opposites
Word family
- consensual adjective
- done with the agreement of everyone involved
- consenting adjective
- giving agreement or permission
- nonconsensual adjective
- done without agreement
- consensus noun
- general agreement among a group
Commonly confused: consent or consensus? consent or assent?
consent vs consensus
Consensus is agreement within a group, while consent is one person's or party's permission to act.
consent vs assent
Assent is simple agreement to an idea, whereas consent grants permission for something to be done.
Practice
The hospital cannot operate on a minor without a parent's ___.
Choose one answer.
Consent means permission freely given, which is what the hospital needs. Consensus is agreement among many people, so it does not fit a single parent's decision.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “consent”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.