Coherence

How to spell coherence

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce coherence

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does coherence mean?

1. nounThe quality of forming a unified, logically consistent whole, so that parts connect clearly.

Coherence in a sentence

• The report lacked coherence, jumping between unrelated points.

• The editor praised the essay for its clarity and coherence.

Where does coherence come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin cohaerentia, meaning a sticking or clinging together, formed from the verb cohaerere. That verb breaks into co- 'together' and haerere, which literally meant 'to cling, stick, or hold fast'. So coherence began as a very physical idea of parts adhering to one another, and only later took on the figurative sense of ideas or arguments hanging together logically. English adopted it in the late 1500s, partly through French cohérence, just as scientific and rhetorical vocabulary was expanding. The same haerere root still clings to relatives like 'adhere' and 'hesitate' (literally 'to stick at something'), and remembering that buried 'her' (from haerere) helps explain the spelling, since the trap is the unstressed middle that sounds like a vague 'her' rather than 'hair' or 'here'.

How the word is built

• co- (together)
• her (from Latin haerere: to stick or cling)
• -ence (noun-forming suffix)