Consent is agreement or permission — to consent is to agree. Content is what something contains, or as an adjective, satisfied. Informed consent; content with the result. Both begin con-; an s agrees, a t holds.
The core difference
- consent — noun: permission, agreement. Without her consent, the age of consent, by mutual consent. Verb: to agree. He consented to the test.
- content — noun (CON-tent): what is contained; material. The content of the letter, online content. Adjective (con-TENT): satisfied. Content to stay, a content smile.
The tell
Consent sits with assent and sense — feeling together, agreeing. Content sits with contain — held inside, and a contained mind is a satisfied one. If permission is being given, it is consent; if something is inside something else, or someone is at ease, it is content.
In use
- consent — The patient gave written consent to the operation. She would never consent to selling the house.
- content — The content of the speech was leaked. He seemed content to let things be.
Common slips
- she gave her content → she gave her consent
- the age of content → the age of consent
Consent agrees; content is held within.
Where the words come from
Consent is from Latin consentire, "to feel together, to agree" — con- + sentire "to feel", the root of sense and sentiment. Content is from Latin contentus, "contained", the past participle of continere — and a contained person is a satisfied one, which is how the adjective arose.
