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The Latin verb haerēre has shown remarkable stick-to-itiveness in influencing the English lexicon, which is fitting for a word that means "to be closely attached; to stick." Among its descendants are adhere (literally meaning "to stick"), adhere’s relative adhesive (a word for sticky substances), inhere (meaning "to belong by nature or habit"), and even hesitate (which implies remaining stuck in place before taking action). In Latin, haerēre teamed up with the prefix co- to form cohaerēre, which means "to stick together." Cohaerēre is the ancestor of cohesive, a word borrowed into English in the early 18th century to describe something that sticks together literally (such as dough or mud) or figuratively (such as a society or sports team).
Examples of cohesive in a Sentence
Clayton Davis, Variety, 15 Nov. 2025
As my colleague Nate Jones pointed out last year, movies that take awards season by storm with their cast as a cohesive unit have been winning Best Picture pretty consistently.
—Joe Reid, Vulture, 14 Nov. 2025
The key is to stick to a cohesive color palette.
—Essence, 14 Nov. 2025
An unwritten future From the onset, Dispatch has had to walk a fine line between telling a cohesive, engaging story and affording its audience the agency to determine where its various threads will go.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 13 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cohesive
Cite this Entry
“Cohesive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cohesive. Accessed 18 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
cohesive
adjective
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