coherent
adjective
co·her·ent
kō-ˈhir-ənt 
-ˈher-
1
a
: logically or aesthetically ordered or integrated : consistent
coherent style
a coherent argument
… a national cuisine evolving out of all the bits and pieces … into a coherent … cuisine.—
Raymond Sokolov
Raymond Sokolov
b
: having clarity or intelligibility : understandable
a coherent speaker
a coherent passage
edited the article to make it more coherent
He was half asleep and not coherent on the phone.
2
: having the quality of holding together or cohering
especially
: cohesive, coordinated
a coherent plan for action
a coherent team of professionals
… whether he and the President have effectively fashioned a coherent national strategy. —Hedrick Smith
Hedrick Smith 3
physics
a
: relating to or composed of waves having a constant difference in phase
coherent light
b
: producing coherent light
a coherent source
coherently
adverb
The students struggled to express their ideas coherently.
Examples of coherent in a Sentence
… 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
He is without a political agenda as he is without a coherent moral sensibility.
—Joyce Carol Oates, Entertainment Weekly, 27 July 1990
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
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
He proposed the most coherent plan to improve the schools.
They are able to function as a coherent group.
Penelope Lively, Atlantic, February 2001
He is without a political agenda as he is without a coherent moral sensibility.
—Joyce Carol Oates, Entertainment Weekly, 27 July 1990
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
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
He proposed the most coherent plan to improve the schools.
They are able to function as a coherent group.
Recent Examples on the Web
The dispute was over timing and risk, not over whether these freedoms were coherent or desirable.
—Philip Martin, Washington Post, 7 Jan. 2026
At a time when death metal bands are experimenting with new age and hardcore bands are embracing pop, Agriculture stand out by making their genre agnosticism feel proudly coherent, like these sounds were always meant to coexist.
—Sam Sodomsky, Pitchfork, 7 Jan. 2026
Those with a strong brand, clearly identifiable icons, and coherent pricing will continue to move forward.
—Victoria Gomelsky, Robb Report, 5 Jan. 2026
The same interactions that usually introduce noise and destroy coherence were instead organizing the spins, creating an extremely stable and coherent microwave signal.
—Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 4 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for coherent
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Philip Martin, Washington Post, 7 Jan. 2026
At a time when death metal bands are experimenting with new age and hardcore bands are embracing pop, Agriculture stand out by making their genre agnosticism feel proudly coherent, like these sounds were always meant to coexist.
—Sam Sodomsky, Pitchfork, 7 Jan. 2026
Those with a strong brand, clearly identifiable icons, and coherent pricing will continue to move forward.
—Victoria Gomelsky, Robb Report, 5 Jan. 2026
The same interactions that usually introduce noise and destroy coherence were instead organizing the spins, creating an extremely stable and coherent microwave signal.
—Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 4 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for coherent
Cite this Entry
“Coherent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coherent. Accessed 11 Jan. 2026.
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