Cons

//ˈkɑnz// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    plural of con form-of, plural
  2. 2
    A data structure in Lisp that is a pair of pointers, car and cdr, used mainly for lists.
  3. 3
    plural of CON form-of, plural
Verb
  1. 1
    To obtain a list from a cons or a nesting of conses; to prepend an element to a list by forming a cons of that element and the list; to obtain a list from a smaller one by repeated application of such kind of prepending.

    "This version of length arises naturally from the recursive definition of a list: “a list is either the empty list or an element consed onto another list.”"

  2. 2
    third-person singular simple present indicative of con form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person

Synonyms

All synonyms
argumentcaseconcons cellcons cellconsideration

Example

More examples

"There are pros and cons to anything."

Etymology

Clipping of construct.

Related phrases

data structure

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.