cohesive

C3O1H4E1S1I1V4E1
UK/kəʊˈhiː.sɪv/Canada, US/koʊˈhi.sɪv/Australia/kəʉˈhiː.sɪv/Australia[kəʉˈhɪi.sɪv]

adjective

Having cohesion.

“a team welded into a cohesive unit”

Less commonScrabble 16

Meanings

adjectivecohesive (comparative more cohesive, superlative most cohesive)

comparative more cohesive · superlative most cohesive · alternative obsolete rare cohæsive

  1. Having cohesion.

    a team welded into a cohesive unit

    4 more examples

    Our object is to unite all the manifestations of the New Era into one cohesive whole—New Thought, Christian Science, Theosophy, Vedanta, Bahaism, and the other sparks from the one New Light.

    1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXX, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC

    Maloney’s moment of magic ensured they did not. For Scotland, who produced the best of what cohesive football there was on the night, it was a merited outcome.

    2014 November 14, Stephen Halliday, “Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero”, in The Scotsman

    “It was presented as a cohesive worldview that you could maintain if you studied the Bible,” she told me. “Part of that was that climate change isn’t real, that evolution is a myth made up by scientists who hate God, and capitalism is God’s ideal for society.”

    2017 April 13, Molly Worthen, “The Evangelical Roots of Our Post-Truth Society”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2020

    The idea of loyalty to a single country and culture, particularly in East Asia, may also “imply the desire to maintain a cohesive ethnocultural identity,” said Dzankic, of GLOBALCIT.

    2021 March 15, Jessie Yeung, “These Asian countries are giving dual citizens an ultimatum on nationality – and loyalty”, in CNN

    Synonyms: coherent, consociated, corporate, tenacious, unified, united

nouncohesive (plural cohesives)

plural cohesives · alternative obsolete rare cohæsive

  1. A substance that provides cohesion

    Direct comparison meta-analysis showed that viscoadaptives lead to a lower loss in cell density compared with very low viscosity dispersives, and compared with super viscous cohesives.

    2012, Lens Diseases—Advances in Research and Treatment: 2012 Edition, →ISBN
    1 more example

    The thesaurus (Chapman, 1977) lists two pages of mechanical tools, two pages of joining functions, and a half page of adhesives, binders, and cohesives used to build or repair consumer goods.

    2001, Doris Banowsky Arrington, Home is Where the Art Is, →ISBN
  2. human sciencesA device used to establish cohesion within a text

    The fourth of this group of cohesives is the anaphoric, same UT.

    1988, Michael R. Walrod, Normative Discourse and Persuasion: An Analysis of Gaʹdang ...

Synonyms & antonyms

More synonyms by meaning

adjectivecausing cohesion

Similar

adjectivecohering or tending to cohere; well integrated

Similar
Also see

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Latincohaesus
  2. Englishcohesive

From Latin cohaesus, past participle of cohaereō, + -ive.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Arabic مُتَمَاسِك, مُتَنَاسِق
  • مُتَمَاسِك (mutamāsik)having cohesion
  • مُتَنَاسِق (mutanāsiq)having cohesion
Bulgarian свързващ, зацепващ
  • свързващ (svărzvašt)having cohesion
  • зацепващ (zacepvašt)having cohesion
Catalan cohesiu
  • cohesiuhaving cohesion
Czech soudržný
  • soudržnýhaving cohesion
Esperanto kohera
  • koherahaving cohesion
Finnish yhdistävä
  • yhdistävähaving cohesion
German zusammenhängend
  • zusammenhängendhaving cohesion
Greek συνεκτικός
  • συνεκτικός (synektikós)having cohesion
Indonesian kohesif
  • kohesifhaving cohesion
Italian coeso
  • coesohaving cohesion
Malay jeleket, kohesif
  • jelekethaving cohesion
  • kohesifhaving cohesion
Persian منسجم
  • منسجم (monsajem)having cohesion
Portuguese coeso
  • coesohaving cohesion
Romanian coerent, coeziv
  • coerenthaving cohesion
  • coezivhaving cohesion
Russian свя́занный, сплочённый
  • свя́занный (svjázannyj)having cohesion
  • сплочённый (spločónnyj)having cohesion
Spanish cohesivo
  • cohesivohaving cohesion
Swedish sammanhängande
  • sammanhängandehaving cohesion
Turkish bağlı, yapışık
  • bağlıhaving cohesion
  • yapışıkhaving cohesion
  • yapışkanhaving cohesion
Cite this entry
APA

cohesive. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cohesive

MLA

“cohesive.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cohesive. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cohesive,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cohesive.

Source: cohesive on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.