coherence
Americannoun
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logical interconnection; overall sense or understandability.
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congruity; consistency.
- Synonyms:
- rationality, agreement, harmony, correspondence
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Physics, Optics. (of waves) the state of being coherent.
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Linguistics. the property of unity in a written text or a segment of spoken discourse that stems from the links among its underlying ideas and from the logical organization and development of its thematic content.
noun
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logical or natural connection or consistency
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another word for cohesion
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A property holding for two or more waves or fields when each individual wave or field is in phase with every other one. Lasers, for example, emit almost perfectly coherent light; all the photons emitted by a laser have the same frequency and are in phase. Since quantum states can be described by a wave equation, coherence can hold for quantum states in general, though only among bosons. Coherence is generally possible in physical systems that may undergo superposition. Maintaining coherence of light is important in fiber optic communications.
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See also Bose-Einstein condensate
Other Word Forms
- noncoherence noun
- noncoherency noun
Etymology
Origin of coherence
First recorded in 1570–80; coher(ent) + -ence
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“The commission of the Strategic Missile Forces Command will check the coherence of the actions of military personnel in the performance of tasks,” Russian defense officials said on Telegram.
From Washington Times
These high jinks are so carefree about coherence that during this rampage, we hear the screech of a terrified cat.
From New York Times
Samsung still hasn’t come up with an alternative that matches the coherence and convenience of a phone designed with the stylus in mind from the very beginning.
From The Verge
That makes the strength of the language and the coherence between the observations all the more important.
From Scientific American
Japan’s patchwork of coronavirus rules can often appear confusing, and the banning of spectators for the Olympics did not bring much more coherence.
From Washington Post
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
