coherent

What it means

1. Unified; sticking together; making up a whole.

   Anglia, is part of a wider phenomenon of the seventh century - the development of recognisable, coherent kingdoms from the fragmented tribal society which emerged from the ruins of Roman Britain.

   2005, Tom Williamson, Sandlands: The Suffolk Coast and Heaths, Windgather, published 2005, →ISBN, page 15

   2 more examples

   A sentence like this one cannot be understood unless somehow we can store the underlined words for several seconds, while we wait for the rest of the sentence to arrive, with the information needed to complete a coherent thought.

   1997, Bernard J. Baars, “Psychology in a World of Sentient, Self-Knowing Beings: A Modest Utopian Fantasy”, in Robert L. Solso, editor, Mind and Brain Sciences in the 21st Century, MIT Press, published 1999, →ISBN, page 7

   They estimate that an individual fragment remains coherent for only about 10,000 years once it is exposed to the surrounding gas. After that, its material is largely shredded and mixed into interstellar space.

   2026 August 12, Jim Shelton, “A dying star offers a rare glimpse of how the universe recycles its raw materials”, in YaleNews, archived from the original on 12 Aug 2026

2. Orderly, logical and consistent.

   Perhaps Khrushchev did have a coherent plan in mind at the time he placed the nuclear missiles in Cuba.

   2007, Kenneth R. Hammond, Beyond Rationality: The Search for Wisdom in a Troubled Time, Oxford University Press, published 2007, →ISBN, page 108

   2 more examples

   At present she is unable to give any coherent account of the past, and the doctors hold out no hopes of the reestablishment of her reason.

   1904 December, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Second Stain”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC

   The underlying problem with transport policy is that there no coherent strategy. Ministers have tended to encourage greater use of motor vehicles through both transport and (particularly) planning policies, while simultaneously warning of the terrible consequences of unfettered growth of road use.

   2020 December 2, Christian Wolmar, “Wales offers us a glimpse of an integrated transport policy”, in Rail, page 56

   Antonyms: disjointed

3. Aesthetically ordered.

In a sentence

A sentence like this one cannot be understood unless somehow we can store the underlined words for several seconds, while we wait for the rest of the sentence to arrive, with the information needed to complete a coherent thought.

1997, Bernard J. Baars, “Psychology in a World of Sentient, Self-Knowing Beings: A Modest Utopian Fantasy”, in Robert L. Solso, editor, Mind and Brain Sciences in the 21st Century, MIT Press, published 1999, →ISBN, page 7

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*ḱe?
2. Proto-Indo-European*ḱóm
3. Proto-Italic*kom
4. Proto-Italic*kom-
5. Latincon-
6. Latinhaereō
7. Latincohaereō
8. Latincohaerēns
9. Middle Frenchcoherent
10. Englishcoherent

From Middle French coherent, from Latin cohaērēns, from co- + haereō. By surface analysis, cohere + -ent.