coherent

Etymology

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

adj

1. Unified; sticking together; making up a whole.
   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, page 7
   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, page 15
   She intimidated me so much that I could hardly get out a coherent sentence in her presence. 2011, Claire Klein Datnow, Behind the Walled Garden of Apartheid: Growing Up White in Segregated South Africa, Media Mint Publishing, published 2011, page 124
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, page 108
   It will dissolve at death with the decay of the body, but it is a perfectly coherent belief that the faithful God will not allow it to be lost but will preserve it in the divine memory. 2009, John Polkinghorne, Nicholas Beale, Questions of Truth: Fifty-One Responses to Questions about God, Science, and Belief, Westminster John Knox Press, published 2009, page 23
   Presenting a balanced and coherent argument is an important aspect of a nonempirical dissertation and you need to spend some time considering the most useful route through your argument. 2009, Carrie Winstanley, Writing a Dissertation For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., published 2009
   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. December 2 2020, Christian Wolmar, “Wales offers us a glimpse of an integrated transport policy”, in Rail, page 56
3. Aesthetically ordered.
4. Having a natural or due agreement of parts; harmonious: a coherent design.
5. (physics) Of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase, as light in a laser.
6. (botany) Attaching or pressing against an organ of the same nature.
7. (mathematics, of a sheaf) Belonging to a specific class of sheaves having particularly manageable properties closely linked to the geometrical properties of the underlying space.