Standard Lemma guide

coherent

adj · 14 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /kəʊˈhɪə.ɹənt/
  • Gloucestershire Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /koʊˈhɛɹ.ənt/
  • General-American: /koʊˈhiɹ.ənt/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Canada: /koːˈhɪɹ.ənt/
  • Australian: /kəʉˈhɪə.ɹənt/
  • Queensland Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • New-Zealand: /kɐʉˈhiə.ɹənt/
  • New-Zealand: /kɐʉˈhiːə.ɹənt/
  • CMU ARPABET: K OW0 HH IH1 R AH0 N T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Unified; sticking together; making up a whole.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Orderly, logical and consistent.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: disjointed

3

adj

Meaning 3

Aesthetically ordered.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adj

Meaning 4

Having a natural or due agreement of parts; harmonious: a coherent design.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

adj

Meaning 5

Of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase, as light in a laser.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

adj

Meaning 6

Attaching or pressing against an organ of the same nature.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biology, botany, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

adj

Meaning 7

Belonging to a specific class of sheaves having particularly manageable properties closely linked to the geometrical properties of the underlying space. See Coherent sheaf on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Qualifier: sheaf theory

Topics: mathematics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

8

adj

Meaning 8

In a technical sense, determined by the (topology of) the subsets. Formally, Such that T is the finest topology on T for which the inclusion maps ιa:C_a→T are continuous, where each C_a is considered with its subspace topology.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: mathematics, sciences, topology

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

9

adj

Meaning 9

Finitely generated and such that all finitely generated submodules are finitely presented.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: algebra, mathematics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

10

adj

Meaning 10

Such that every finitely generated (left) ideal is finitely presented.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: algebra, mathematics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

11

adjective

Meaning 11

(physics) of waves having a constant phase relation

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: incoherent

12

adjective

Meaning 12

marked by an orderly, logical, and aesthetically consistent relation of parts

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a coherent argument

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: consistent, logical, ordered

Antonyms: incoherent

13

adjective satellite

Meaning 13

sticking together

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • two coherent sheets
  • tenacious burrs

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: tenacious

Antonyms: none provided

14

adjective satellite

Meaning 14

capable of thinking and expressing yourself in a clear and consistent manner

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a lucid thinker
  • she was more coherent than she had been just after the accident

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: logical, lucid

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Latin haereō Latin cohaereō Latin cohaerēnsder. Middle French coherentder. English coherent From Middle French coherent, from Latin cohaērēns, from co- + haereō. By surface analysis, cohere + -ent.

Across languages

Translations

83 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: свързан (svǎrzan) — sticking together
  • Bulgarian: съгласуван (sǎglasuvan) — sticking together
  • Catalan: coherent — sticking together
  • Chinese Mandarin: 凝聚的 (níngjù de) — sticking together
  • Czech: soudržný — sticking together
  • Dutch: samenhangend — sticking together
  • Dutch: coherent — sticking together
  • Finnish: koherentti — sticking together
  • Finnish: yhtenäinen — sticking together
  • German: kohärent — sticking together
  • German: zusammenhängend — sticking together
  • Greek: συνεκτικός (synektikós) — sticking together
  • Greek: συναφής (synafís) — sticking together
  • Greek: συνδεδεμένος (syndedeménos) — sticking together
  • Hebrew: עקבי (ikví) — sticking together
  • Hebrew: עקיב (akív) — sticking together
  • Hebrew: קוהרנטי (koherénti) — sticking together
  • Hungarian: koherens — sticking together
  • Hungarian: összefüggő — sticking together
  • Manx: co-haagh — sticking together
  • Norwegian Bokmål: koherent — sticking together
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: koherent — sticking together
  • Portuguese: coerente — sticking together
  • Russian: свя́зный (svjáznyj) — sticking together
  • Spanish: coherente — sticking together
  • Ukrainian: зв'я́зний (zvʺjáznyj) — sticking together
  • Albanian: koherént — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Bulgarian: ясен (jasen) — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Bulgarian: последователен (posledovatelen) — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Catalan: coherent — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Chinese Mandarin: 有條理的 /有条理的 (yǒu tiáolǐ de) — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Chinese Mandarin: 連貫的 /连贯的 (liánguàn de) — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Czech: souvislý — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Czech: ucelený — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Danish: sammenhængende — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Dutch: samenhangend — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Dutch: coherent — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Esperanto: kohera — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Finnish: koherentti — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Finnish: johdonmukainen — orderly, logical and consistent
  • French: cohérent — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Galician: coherente — orderly, logical and consistent
  • German: kohärent — orderly, logical and consistent
  • German: schlüssig — orderly, logical and consistent
  • German: widerspruchsfrei — orderly, logical and consistent
  • German: folgerichtig — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Greek: συνεκτικός (synektikós) — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Hungarian: egységes — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Hungarian: koherens — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Italian: coerente — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Latin: contextus — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Maltese: koerenti — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Manx: resoonagh — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Manx: colhiantynagh — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Occitan: coerent — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Persian: منطقی (manteqi) — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Polish: koherentny — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Portuguese: coerente — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Russian: свя́зный (svjáznyj) — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Russian: после́довательный (poslédovatelʹnyj) — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Scottish Gaelic: pongail — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Spanish: coherente — orderly, logical and consistent
  • Finnish: sopusointuinen — aesthetically ordered
  • German: stimmig — aesthetically ordered
  • Persian: مرتب (morattab) — aesthetically ordered
  • Bulgarian: кохерентен (koherenten) — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Catalan: coherent — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Chinese Mandarin: 相干的 (xiānggān de) — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Czech: koherentní — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Esperanto: kohera — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Finnish: koherentti — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Finnish: samanvaiheinen — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • French: cohérent — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • German: kohärent — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Greek: σύμφωνος (sýmfonos) — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Kazakh: когеренттi (kogerentti) — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Malay: koheren — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Norwegian Bokmål: koherent — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: koherent — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Polish: koherentny — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Portuguese: coerente — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Russian: когере́нтный (kogeréntnyj) — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
  • Spanish: coherente — of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase
Real reading context

coherent in complete knowledge articles