Coherence Meaning
/kəʊˈhɪəɹ.ən(t)s/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe quality of cohering, or being coherent; internal consistency.
nounThe quality of forming a unified whole.
Sentence Examples
We recognize coherence in texts.
Academic writing needs to show cohesion and coherence.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The essay lacked ____, making it hard to follow the argument.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The essay lacked ____ and was very difficult for me to read ton.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Latin haereō Latin cohaereō Latin cohaerēns Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin cohaerentiader. Middle French coherenceder. English coherence From Middle French coherence, from Latin cohaerentia. By surface analysis, cohere + -ence.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Mrs. Grose listened with dumb emotion; she forbore to ask me what this meaning might be; so that, presently, to put the thing with some coherence and with the mere aid of her presence to my own mind, I went on: “That he’s an injury to the others.”"
— 1898, Henry James, chapter II, in The Turn of the Screw:
"He would then put down his pencil and stare in front of him, and wonder in what respects the world was different—it had, perhaps, more solidity, more coherence, more importance, greater depth."
— 1915, Virginia Woolf, chapter XXII, in The Voyage Out, London: Duckworth & Co., […], →OCLC:
"When I come to his connection with Blanche Stroeve I am exasperated by the fragmentariness of the facts at my disposal. To give my story coherence I should describe the progress of their tragic union, but I know nothing of the three months during which they lived together."
— 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XLIII, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
"In a lesson on coherence in academic writing, students engaged in the following discussion on the online platform TodaysMeet."
— 2017, Di Zou, James Lambert, “Feedback methods for student voice in the digital age”, in British Journal of Educational Technology, volume 48, number 5, page 1088:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The essay lacked ____, making it hard to follow the argument.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The essay lacked ____ and was very difficult for me to read ton.