cohere

verb co·here \ kō-ˈhir \

|Updated on: 16 Jul 2018

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Examples: cohere in a Sentence

Editor's Note: cohere vs Adhere

Definition of cohere

cohered; cohering

intransitive verb

1 a : to hold together firmly as parts of the same mass; broadly : stick, adhere

b : to display cohesion of plant parts

2 : to hold together as a mass of parts that cohere

3 a : to become united in principles, relationships, or interests

b : to be logically or aesthetically consistent

transitive verb

: to cause (parts or components) to cohere

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Examples of cohere in a Sentence

the account in his journal coheres with the official report of the battle
beset by personal animosities, the people of the neighborhood could not cohere into an effective civic association

Recent Examples of cohere from the Web

Turbojugend exemplify the idea of music fandoms as organized groups that cohere around a particular band or artist.

— nancy baym, WIRED, "Book Excerpt: How Music Fans Built the Internet," 10 July 2018
Here again the back story is key — the piece, according to the composer’s telling, is assembled out of fragments that had refused to cohere.

— joshua kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, "San Francisco Symphony does right by little-known Prokofiev," 4 May 2018
But the thin storyline takes a back seat to the rich language on display; like many a jazz composition, Paradise Blue doesn't cohere very well, but there are some dazzling solos.

— frank scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, "'Paradise Blue': Theater Review," 15 May 2018
Once in a while, a certain cognitive fog clears and the obvious finally coheres for the dope who should’ve caught on sooner.

— katie arnold-ratliff, The Cut, "The Engagement Ring I Was Going to Buy Anyway," 10 Apr. 2018
Taken as a whole, however, the reading was ill-balanced and failed to cohere.

— john von rhein, chicagotribune.com, "Review: John Malkovich's wan narration disappoints in CSO reading of 'Lincoln Portrait'," 13 Apr. 2018
The result coheres into a pleasing whole piece of theater that never succumbs to the gimmick of its structure.

— theodore p. mahne, NOLA.com, "'Stranger Disease' vividly brings history to life at Madame John's Legacy," 26 Mar. 2018
As performed by four strong dancers, a vivid succession of scenes emerge that indicate emotional possibility but then do not develop or cohere.

— irene hsiao, Chicago Reader, "Lie Through My Skin attempts to confront the shame of white privilege," 21 Mar. 2018
There are overlaps among their stories — three or four are patients of the Angolan eye doctor and many of them seem to inhabit the same old-age home or haunt the same cemetery — so the novel does begin to cohere as the stories accumulate.

— wendy lesser, New York Times, "A Capital City, Still Haunted by Its Past," 26 Jan. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cohere.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

cohere vs Adhere

When you finish writing a paper, you may feel that it coheres well, since it's sharply focused and all the ideas seem to support each other. When all the soldiers in an army platoon feel like buddies, the platoon has become a cohesive unit. In science class you may learn the difference between cohesion (the tendency of a chemical's molecules to stick together) and adhesion (the tendency of the molecules of two different substances to stick together). Water molecules tend to cohere, so water falls from the sky in drops, not as separate molecules. But water molecules also adhere to molecules of other substances, so raindrops will often cling to the underside of a clothesline for a while before gravity pulls them down.

Origin and Etymology of cohere

borrowed from Latin cohaerēre "to stick together, be in contact with, be connected," from co- co- + haerēre "to be closely attached, stick," going back to a stem *hais-, of obscure origin

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1598

in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1a

See Words from the same year