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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

incoherence en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˌɪnkəʊˈhɪəɹəns/
  • (US) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in-bor. Middle English in- English in- Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Latin haereō Latin cohaereō Latin cohaerēns Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin cohaerentiader. Middle French coherenceder. English coherence English incoherence From in- + coherence, formed on model of Italian incoerenza.

Meanings

  1. (countable, uncountable) The quality of being incoherent. ▸ The quality of not making logical sense or of not being logically connected.
    • 1680, Henry Care, The History of the Damnable Popish Plot, London: B.R. et al., Chapter 23, Section 2, p. 327, […] the said Lane is prevailed with […] to prefer an Indictment against Dr. Oates, for attempting to commit upon him the horrid and detestable sin of Sodomy; but the Grand Jury, by reason of the incoherence and slightness of his Evidence, did not think fit to finde it, but returned an Ignoramus.
    • Lily’s head was so heavy with the weight of a sleepless night that the chatter of her companions had the incoherence of a dream. 1905, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, Book 2, Chapter 10:
    • HE DESCENDED, signifieth a voluntarie motion, where as the bodie dead hath neither WILL nor MOTION. […] Though therefore this exposition cannot be charged with falsitie, for Christ was trulie buried; yet may it not bee endured by reason of […] the improprietie and incoherence of the worde, that a deade corps should descend […] 1599, Thomas Bilson, The Effect of Certaine Sermons Touching the Full Redemption of Mankind by the Death and Bloud of Christ Jesus, London: Walter Burre, page 145:
    • My grandfather, accustomed to the multifarious conjugations of ancient Greek verbs, had found English, for all its incoherence, a relatively simple tongue to master. 2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Book 2, p. 99:
    • Bulstrode went away now without anxiety as to what Raffles might say in his raving, which had taken on a muttering incoherence not likely to create any dangerous belief. 1872, George Eliot, chapter 70, in Middlemarch:
  2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) The quality of being incoherent. ▸ The quality of not holding together physically.
    • 1669, Robert Boyle, “The History of Fluidity and Firmness,” Section 16, in Certain Physiological Essays and Other Tracts, London: Henry Herringman, p. 182, […] if it [Salt-Petre] be beaten into an impalpable powder, this powder, when it is pour’d out, will emulate a Liquor, by reason that the smallness and incoherence of the parts do both make them easie to be put into motion […]
  3. (countable) Something incoherent; something that does not make logical sense or is not logically connected.
    • […] Incoherences in Matter and Suppositions, without Proofs put handsomly together in good Words and a plausible Stile, are apt to pass for strong Reason and good Sense, till they come to be look’d into with Attention. 1689 December (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 3, in Two Treatises of Government: […], London: […] Awnsham Churchill, […], →OCLC, book I, page 26:
    • This was strangely heightened at times by the ragged Elijah’s diabolical incoherences uninvitedly recurring to me, with a subtle energy I could not have before conceived of. 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter 28”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
  4. (countable, uncountable) Thinking or speech that is so disorganized that it is essentially inapprehensible to others.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
incoherences Number=Plur lexicographic

Antonyms

coherence

Relateds

incoherency

Synonyms

unintelligibility (quality of not making logical sense)

Translations (29)

fr incohérence (quality of being incoherent) · el ασυναρτησία (quality of being incoherent) · ca incoherència (something incoherent) · el ασυναρτησία (something incoherent) · hi असंगति (something incoherent) · el ασυνέχεια (quality of being incoherent) · ca incoherència (quality of being incoherent) · es incoherencia (quality of being incoherent) · bg несвързаност (quality of being incoherent) · hi असंगति (quality of being incoherent) · es incoherencia (something incoherent) · fi epäyhtenäisyys (quality of being incoherent) · gl incoherencia (quality of being incoherent) · lt inkoherencija (psychiatric term) · es roca (something incoherent) · fi ristiriitaisuus (quality of being incoherent) · ar تَهَافُت (quality of being incoherent) · ru инкогере́нтность (psychiatric term) · de Inkohärenz (quality of being incoherent) · it incoerenza (quality of being incoherent) · el ασυνάφεια (quality of being incoherent) · bg непоследователност (quality of being incoherent) · hi विसंगति (quality of being incoherent) · fi epäjohdonmukaisuus (quality of being incoherent) · de Zusammenhanglosigkeit (quality of being incoherent) · ru инкогере́нция (psychiatric term) · ru бессвя́зность (psychiatric term) · fi sekavuus (quality of being incoherent) · fr incohérence (something incoherent)