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
