All 5 Uses
coherent
in
White Noise, by Don DeLillo
(Auto-generated)
- It seems that danger assigns to public voices the responsibility of a rhythm, as if in metrical units there is a coherence we can use to balance whatever senseless and furious event is about to come rushing around our heads.†
Part 2coherence = sensibleness or clarity; or describing parts as fitting together in a consistent or pleasing manner
- From deep in the woods we heard motorcycles revving, voices raising incoherent cries.†
Part 2 *incoherent = not sensible or clear; or describing parts as not fitting together in a consistent or pleasing mannerstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incoherent means not and reverses the meaning of coherent. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Enter unannounced, gain his confidence, wait for an unguarded moment, take out the Zumwalt, shoot him three times in the viscera for maximum slowness of agony, put the gun in his hand to suggest a lonely man's suicide, write semi-coherent things on the mirror, leave Stover's car in Treadwell's garage.†
Part 3coherent = sensible and clear; or describing parts as fitting together in a consistent or pleasing manner
- Waves, rays, coherent beams.†
Part 3
- There is anticipation in the air but it is not the expectant midsummer hum of a shirt sleeve crowd, a sandlot game, with coherent precedents, a history of secure response.†
Part 3
Definitions:
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(1)
(coherent) sensible and clear; or describing parts as fitting together in a consistent or pleasing manner
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(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) A comprehensive dictionary will have more specialized definitions of coherent such as one used in physics.