Dictionary.com

Word of the Day Archive
Saturday June 5, 1999

cogent \KOH-juhnt\, adjective:
Having the power to compel conviction; appealing to the mind or to reason; convincing.

One woman, Adrian Pomerantz, was so intelligent that the professors always lit up when Adrian spoke; her eloquent, cogent analyses forced them not to be lazy, not to repeat themselves.
-- Meg Wolitzer, Surrender, Dorothy

I suggested to the student that she take her refusal as the theme of her term paper and ponder it as carefully as possible. A few weeks later she submitted one of the most cogent, intelligent papers I have read.
-- Denis Donoghue, The Practice of Reading

Cogent derives from Latin cogere, "to drive together, to force," from co-, "with, together" + agere, "to drive."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for cogent

 

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