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 person walking between those two rooms is doing the quiet, exhausting work of keeping both versions of themselves coherent.
—Vibhas Ratanjee, Forbes.com, 14 June 2026
Romantic from the first frame to the last, Park Chan-wook's 2022 masterpiece is a culmination of his steady and coherent approach to disturbing characters and his love for Hitchcock.
—Eric Farwell, Entertainment Weekly, 12 June 2026
Pratt didn’t have a coherent message for Latino voters, and didn’t have prominent Latinos campaigning on his behalf, noted Fernando Guerra, the director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.
—Melissa Gomez, Los Angeles Times, 12 June 2026
After a few moments, Lugo was coherent and walked off the field on his own power.
—Jaylon Thompson, Kansas City Star, 11 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for coherent
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Vibhas Ratanjee, Forbes.com, 14 June 2026
Romantic from the first frame to the last, Park Chan-wook's 2022 masterpiece is a culmination of his steady and coherent approach to disturbing characters and his love for Hitchcock.
—Eric Farwell, Entertainment Weekly, 12 June 2026
Pratt didn’t have a coherent message for Latino voters, and didn’t have prominent Latinos campaigning on his behalf, noted Fernando Guerra, the director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.
—Melissa Gomez, Los Angeles Times, 12 June 2026
After a few moments, Lugo was coherent and walked off the field on his own power.
—Jaylon Thompson, Kansas City Star, 11 June 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 17 Jun. 2026.
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