coherent

co·her·ent

adjective \kō-ˈhir-ənt, -ˈher-\

Definition of COHERENT

1

a : logically or aesthetically ordered or integrated : consistent <coherent style> <a coherent argument>

b : having clarity or intelligibility : understandable <a coherent person> <a coherent passage>

2

: having the quality of holding together or cohering; especially : cohesive, coordinated <a coherent plan for action>

3

a : relating to or composed of waves having a constant difference in phase <coherent light>

b : producing coherent light <a coherent source>

— co·her·ent·ly adverb

Examples of COHERENT

1. He proposed the most coherent plan to improve the schools.
2. They are able to function as a coherent group.
3. … the diaries and the novels demonstrate how a novelist tweaks and grooms reality into something more structured and coherent than life as it is lived. —Penelope Lively, Atlantic, February 2001
4. He is without a political agenda as he is without a coherent moral sensibility. —Joyce Carol Oates, Entertainment Weekly, 27 July 1990
5. At times, without my insisting on it, my writings become coherent; the successive elements that occur to me are clearly related. —William Stafford, Writing the Australian Crawl, 1978
6. This time the song was old, a pattern of rhythmic monosyllables which had lost coherent meaning somewhere in time. —Tony Hillerman, The Blessing Way, 1970

Origin of COHERENT

Middle French or Latin; Middle French cohérent, from Latin cohaerent-, cohaerens, present participle of cohaerēre (see cohere)

First Known Use: circa 1555

Related to COHERENT

Synonyms

analytic (or analytical), logical, consequent, good, rational, reasonable, sensible, sound, valid, well-founded, well-grounded

Antonyms

illegitimate, illogical, incoherent, inconsequent, inconsequential, invalid, irrational, unreasonable, unsound, weak

Related Words

a posteriori, a priori, syllogistic; cognitive, empirical (also empiric); defendable, defensible, justifiable, maintainable, supportable, sustainable, tenable

Near Antonyms

casuistic (or casuistical), eristic (also eristical), fallacious, misleading, sophistic (or sophistical), specious; unarticulated; unscientific; absurd, cockeyed, crazy, daffy, fatuous, half-baked, half-witted, harebrained, insane, loony (also looney), mad, nonsensical, nutty, preposterous, simpleminded, stupid, weak-minded, witless; senseless, thoughtless; uncompelling, unconvincing

Rhymes with COHERENT

adherent, inherent, sederunt, vicegerent