coherent
adjective
co·her·ent
kō-ˈhir-ənt 
-ˈher-
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
3
a
: relating to or composed of waves having a constant difference in phase
coherent light
b
: producing coherent light
a coherent source
coherently
adverb
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
One thing that is really striking is that there really doesn’t seem to be a coherent China policy in this Administration.
—Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2025
By studying the region with narrowband filters sensitive to hydrogen (H-alpha) and sulfur (S II) emissions, the team detected a coherent, circular shell structure centered on the nova.
—Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 27 Sep. 2025
Often, it's committed by people who don't have coherent ideologies that map neatly to the left or the right side of the political spectrum.
—Anna Kleiber, jsonline.com, 26 Sep. 2025
Policymakers and scholars in the West talk about Southeast Asia as a coherent region, but it has always been divided.
—Susannah Patton, Foreign Affairs, 25 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for coherent
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Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2025
By studying the region with narrowband filters sensitive to hydrogen (H-alpha) and sulfur (S II) emissions, the team detected a coherent, circular shell structure centered on the nova.
—Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 27 Sep. 2025
Often, it's committed by people who don't have coherent ideologies that map neatly to the left or the right side of the political spectrum.
—Anna Kleiber, jsonline.com, 26 Sep. 2025
Policymakers and scholars in the West talk about Southeast Asia as a coherent region, but it has always been divided.
—Susannah Patton, Foreign Affairs, 25 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for coherent
Cite this Entry
“Coherent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coherent. Accessed 7 Oct. 2025.
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