Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The quality or state of cohering, especially a logical, orderly, and aesthetically consistent relationship of parts.
  • noun Physics The property of being coherent, as of waves.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act or state of cohering; a sticking or cleaving of one thing to another, or of parts of the same body to each other, or a cleaving together of two bodies, as by the force of attraction.
  • noun Suitable connection or dependence, proceeding from the natural relation of parts or things to each other, as in the parts of a discourse or of any system; consistency.
  • noun In mathematics See adherence, 6.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A sticking or cleaving together; union of parts of the same body; cohesion.
  • noun Connection or dependence, proceeding from the subordination of the parts of a thing to one principle or purpose, as in the parts of a discourse, or of a system of philosophy; a logical and orderly and consistent relation of parts; consecutiveness.
  • noun the state of cohering.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Quality of cohering; of being coherent; internal consistency.
  • noun a logical arrangements of parts
  • noun physics the property of having the same wavelength and phase.
  • noun linguistics Semantic relationship between different parts of the same text.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the state of cohering or sticking together
  • noun logical and orderly and consistent relation of parts

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French coherence, from Latin cohaerentia.

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Examples

  • That our society has an interest in coherence and strength and commitment and mutually reinforcing loyalties, then if gay couples want to call their union marriage and a state agrees, and several have now, or a religious body will sanction it - and I don't think the state should be able to stop the religious bodies from saying it - I don't think the rest of us should get in the way of that.

    Religion 2009

  • But still: I like a coherent narrative thread, and so far as coherence is possible in personal narratives, why not pursue it?

    The Story’s The Thing | Her Bad Mother 2009

  • That our society has an interest in coherence and strength and commitment and mutually reinforcing loyalties, then if gay couples want to call their union marriage and a state agrees, and several have now, or a religious body will sanction it - and I don't think the state should be able to stop the religious bodies from saying it - I don't think the rest of us should get in the way of that.

    Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog: 2009

  • That our society has an interest in coherence and strength and commitment and mutually reinforcing loyalties, then if gay couples want to call their union marriage and a state agrees, and several have now, or a religious body will sanction it - and I don't think the state should be able to stop the religious bodies from saying it - I don't think the rest of us should get in the way of that.

    Current Affairs 2009

  • That our society has an interest in coherence and strength and commitment and mutually reinforcing loyalties, then if gay couples want to call their union marriage and a state agrees, and several have now, or a religious body will sanction it - and I don't think the state should be able to stop the religious bodies from saying it - I don't think the rest of us should get in the way of that.

    Culture of Death 2009

  • That our society has an interest in coherence and strength and commitment and mutually reinforcing loyalties, then if gay couples want to call their union marriage and a state agrees, and several have now, or a religious body will sanction it - and I don't think the state should be able to stop the religious bodies from saying it - I don't think the rest of us should get in the way of that.

    Politics 2009

  • Kevin Starr said, “You would need a coherent political culture for such a session to occur” — and the lack of such coherence is exactly the problem — “otherwise it would turn into a food fight from Animal House.”

    How America Can Rise Again 2010

  • I think the total lack of coherence from the administartion shows that Bush is right.

    Bush on Obama: 'This guy has no clue' 2009

  • Kevin Starr said, “You would need a coherent political culture for such a session to occur” — and the lack of such coherence is exactly the problem — “otherwise it would turn into a food fight from Animal House.”

    How America Can Rise Again 2010

  • That our society has an interest in coherence and strength and commitment and mutually reinforcing loyalties, then if gay couples want to call their union marriage and a state agrees, and several have now, or a religious body will sanction it - and I don't think the state should be able to stop the religious bodies from saying it - I don't think the rest of us should get in the way of that.

    The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize takes the fight... 2009

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