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
Without a coherent federal framework, patients in underserved areas will keep waiting for care that AI could safely deliver, while states cycle through ad hoc deployments and predictable backlash.
—Alon Bergman, STAT, 11 May 2026
Musically, the set could feel less like a coherent concert than a jukebox possessed by the ghost of a 2003 Daytona Beach spring-break trip.
—Théoden Janes, Charlotte Observer, 10 May 2026
In Koselleck’s account, the church, which told a coherent story about the beginning, middle, and end of time, had to loosen its narrative grip.
—Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, 8 May 2026
The current administration’s reliance on tariffs and direct state equity in firms like Intel is a poor substitute for a coherent industrial strategy.
—Imran Khalid, Twin Cities, 7 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for coherent
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Alon Bergman, STAT, 11 May 2026
Musically, the set could feel less like a coherent concert than a jukebox possessed by the ghost of a 2003 Daytona Beach spring-break trip.
—Théoden Janes, Charlotte Observer, 10 May 2026
In Koselleck’s account, the church, which told a coherent story about the beginning, middle, and end of time, had to loosen its narrative grip.
—Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, 8 May 2026
The current administration’s reliance on tariffs and direct state equity in firms like Intel is a poor substitute for a coherent industrial strategy.
—Imran Khalid, Twin Cities, 7 May 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 13 May. 2026.
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