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Synonyms

cohesive

American  
[koh-hee-siv] / koʊˈhi sɪv /

adjective

  1. characterized by or causing cohesion.

    a cohesive agent.

  2. cohering or tending to cohere; well-integrated; unified.

    a cohesive organization.

  3. Physics. of or relating to the molecular force within a body or substance acting to unite its parts.

cohesive British  
/ kəʊˈhiːsɪv /

adjective

  1. characterized by or causing cohesion

  2. tending to cohere or stick together

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • cohesively adverb
  • cohesiveness noun
  • noncohesive adjective
  • uncohesive adjective

Etymology

Origin of cohesive

First recorded in 1720–30; cohes(ion) + -ive

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.

Smoother on the ball and more cohesive than an Arsenal side based on organisation, the traffic only flowed one way.

From BBC • Mar. 22, 2026

But every gallery contains surprises, and for a show with such an expansive purview and so many artworks, the result is surprisingly cohesive.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026

Back in the rehearsal room, Jonas focuses on laying out the structure before he stitches the pieces together into a cohesive trilogy.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 13, 2026

Now Fiddelke must bring it home by tying all those initiatives together into a cohesive playbook.

From Barron's • Mar. 2, 2026

Faced with this ever-growing flood of squatters, two Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa, began building a larger, more cohesive Indigenous resistance.

From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

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.