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 economic model that funds it—brands spending on content as a long-game alternative to Google ad arbitrage, companies like HubSpot and Robinhood building editorial operations to cultivate readers who might one day become customers — is coherent and, for now, growing.
—Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 9 June 2026
As the slightly more sensible Tess, Ginger Minj is the glue of the production, ably carrying the heavy burden of turning the very silly storyline into something broadly coherent.
—Wilson Chapman, IndieWire, 9 June 2026
However, the coherent ones are caused by flaws in the hardware and are therefore fixable.
—Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 9 June 2026
The election showed that economic concerns and the failure of the opposition to form a coherent counter to Pashinyan outweighed the unpopularity of some of his foreign policy ventures.
—Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 8 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for coherent
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Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 9 June 2026
As the slightly more sensible Tess, Ginger Minj is the glue of the production, ably carrying the heavy burden of turning the very silly storyline into something broadly coherent.
—Wilson Chapman, IndieWire, 9 June 2026
However, the coherent ones are caused by flaws in the hardware and are therefore fixable.
—Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 9 June 2026
The election showed that economic concerns and the failure of the opposition to form a coherent counter to Pashinyan outweighed the unpopularity of some of his foreign policy ventures.
—Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 8 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 10 Jun. 2026.
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