1
as in effectiveness
the capacity to persuade
the cogency of Thomas Paine's celebrated case for American independence
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in impact
the quality of an utterance that provokes interest and produces an effect
satirical comments of great cogency
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of cogency
In one of its most demanding assignments of recent memory, the San Francisco Opera Chorus led by John Keene embodies one population after another — monkeys, undersea dwellers, gods and heavenly hangers-on — and does it with power and cogency.
—
Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 Nov. 2025
TikTok’s algorithm started swamping me with humanities grad students of varying cogency.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 17 Oct. 2025
Masterpiece remakes offer something very different, speaking to us with surprising urgency and cogency across time.
—Jim Shepard, New York Times, 12 Feb. 2025
The play echoes this ever-important sentiment but with far less cogency on an American stage.
—Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 15 Oct. 2024
European leaders refused to comment on the record about their perceptions of Biden’s cogency.
—Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY, 12 July 2024
The emphasis is on technical perfection, formal cogency, and unity of interpretive approach.
—Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
Here, his body of writing, published as well as unpublished, historical as well as contemporaneous, stands out for its cogency, intricacy, and fluency.
—Fredrik Logevall, Foreign Affairs, 20 Dec. 2022
Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 Nov. 2025
TikTok’s algorithm started swamping me with humanities grad students of varying cogency.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 17 Oct. 2025
Masterpiece remakes offer something very different, speaking to us with surprising urgency and cogency across time.
—Jim Shepard, New York Times, 12 Feb. 2025
The play echoes this ever-important sentiment but with far less cogency on an American stage.
—Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 15 Oct. 2024
European leaders refused to comment on the record about their perceptions of Biden’s cogency.
—Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY, 12 July 2024
The emphasis is on technical perfection, formal cogency, and unity of interpretive approach.
—Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
Here, his body of writing, published as well as unpublished, historical as well as contemporaneous, stands out for its cogency, intricacy, and fluency.
—Fredrik Logevall, Foreign Affairs, 20 Dec. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cogency
Noun
-
While Jaquez did not provide the eye-popping scoring of some of her teammates, the wing brought a cool effectiveness to the defensive side of the ball while tallying a pair of assists and a handful of deflections.—
Julia Poe,
Chicago Tribune,
10 May 2026
-
The United States and Israel pounded Iran with devastating effectiveness for 37 days, killing much of the country’s leadership and destroying the bulk of its military, yet couldn’t collapse the regime or exact even the smallest concession from it.—
Robert Kagan,
The Atlantic,
10 May 2026
Noun
-
Rowles is also making an impact at Marist in flag football.—
Tony Baranek,
Chicago Tribune,
14 May 2026
-
Not even BriseBois anticipated James, who was signed as a free agent two days into training camp after his draft rights with the Blackhawks expired, would have made such a quick impact.—
Eduardo A. Encina,
The Orlando Sentinel,
13 May 2026
Noun
-
But his dictionary, with its conclusiveness, was a huge publishing success.—
Louis Menand,
New Yorker,
22 Dec. 2025
Noun
-
That projection is based on the player’s performance in each metric over the last three seasons (five for goalies), weighted for recency where more recent seasons carry more significance and regressed to the mean.—
Dom Luszczyszyn,
New York Times,
17 May 2026
-
The significance of these findings The study suggests human right-handedness may be deeply rooted in the same evolutionary changes that transformed how our ancestors moved and interacted with the world.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
16 May 2026
Noun
-
Agent Ammie is the Special Agent, Review Fraud Division, who investigates every single review on Liners to verify its validity and unbiasedness.—
Nia Bowers,
USA Today,
12 May 2026
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Only a few of the candidates explicitly raise doubts about the validity of the 2020 election on their campaign websites.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
11 May 2026
Noun
-
Palmer’s shot is well blocked by Marc Guehi — which underlines the importance of their decision-making in these moments.—
Cerys Jones,
New York Times,
13 May 2026
-
From 1949 to 1987, the Federal Communications Commission held radio and television stations to a standard requiring them to air opposing sides of public issues of importance, a policy known as the fairness doctrine.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
13 May 2026
Noun
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Chelsea’s squad demographic falls somewhere in between but is probably closer to the former than the latter, and a football legend with his resume should not encounter the authority problems faced by owner BlueCo’s previous hires.—
Liam Twomey,
New York Times,
17 May 2026
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Health authorities said Congo has stockpiles of Ebola treatments and approximately 2,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, though officials cautioned the vaccine is only effective against the Ebola Zaire strain and not against Sudan or Bundibugyo variants.—
Jasmine Baehr,
FOXNews.com,
16 May 2026
Noun
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The beauty and persuasiveness of Claude’s response to Marks alone may be cause for skepticism, because personalization is one of Claude’s core product features.—
Nick Lichtenberg,
Fortune,
3 Mar. 2026
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The study released Thursday is not the first to try to measure the persuasiveness of AI.—
David Ingram,
NBC news,
4 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cogency.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cogency. Accessed 18 May. 2026.
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