Word of the Day:

December 18, 2010

cohesive

adjective koh-HEE-siv

What it Means

: exhibiting or producing a condition in which people or things are closely united

Cohesive in Context

Theirs was a cohesive and loving family, sticking together through bad times and good.

"Put simply, arts and culture initiatives are essential to creating vibrant, prosperous and socially cohesive communities." -- From an article by Neil Darwin in Local Government Chronicle (LGC), September 30, 2010

More example sentences

Did You Know?

Our first example sentence contains a hint about the "sticky" origins of today's word -- "cohesive" ultimately derives from Latin "haerēre," meaning "to stick." Other descendants of "haerēre" in English include "adhere" ("to stick"), "inhere" ("to belong by nature or habit"), and even "hesitate." "Haerēre" teamed up with the prefix "co-" to form "cohaerēre," an ancestor of "cohesive," "cohesion" ("a sticking together"), "cohere" ("to stick together"), and "coherent" ("able to stick together" or "logically consistent"). Quiz content:

Test Your Memory

What word completes this sentence from a recent Word of the Day: "Afflicted with a sudden case of the ______, Doug tensed up and pulled his putt too far to the left"? The answer is ...