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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

incoherent en · ADJ

Pronunciation

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 cohaerēnsder. Middle French coherentder. English coherent English incoherent From in- + coherent.

Meanings

  1. Not coherent. ▸ Not making logical sense; not logically connected or consistent.
    • The historian […] is a sort of novelist, but one who instead of inventing plot and character is obliged to discover them; who instead of setting characters in motion against one another with foreknowledge of their natures and destinies tries to guess at what often incoherent characters were up to amid a distraction of lies and suppressions. 2002, Julian Barnes, chapter 1, in Something to Declare, New York: Knopf, page 10:
    • 1765, William Warburton, The Divine Legation of Moses, London: A. Millar and J. and R. Tonson, 4th edition, Volume 3, Book 4, Section 4, p. 103, note z, […] this historian of men and manners goes on in the same rambling incoherent manner […]
    • After just a few drinks, he becomes incoherent.
    • When we confronted her, she gave us a hasty, incoherent explanation.
    • It was as if he was in fear of being swamped, rendered incoherent, by the sheer marvelousness of what he was relating. 1980, Barry Unsworth, Pascali’s Island, Penguin, published 1988, page 154:
    • By which thus still ouermuch busying your selfe in matters passing your skill, it maketh you so forgetfull, that oftentimes you are faine to vtter matters incoherent, and much contradictorie. 1599, Ralph Brooke, A Discouerie of Certaine Errours Published in Print in the Much Commended Britannia, London, page 35:
    • […] the big dark dining table twinkled here and there in the small candle-light; the pictures on the wall, all of them very brown, looked vague and incoherent. 1908, Henry James, chapter XV, in The Portrait of a Lady (The Novels and Tales of Henry James; III), New York edition, volume I, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC; republished as The Portrait of a Lady (EBook #2833), United States: Project Gutenberg, 1 September 2001:
  2. (obsolete) Not coherent. ▸ Not holding together physically; loose; unconnected.
    • That Sand-Stone does not still consolidate: i.e. that Matter which was, a few Years ago, lax, incoherent, and in form of Earth, or of Sand, does not become daily more hard and consistent, and by little and little acquire a perfect Solidity, and so turn to Stone; as others have asserted. 1695, John Woodward, An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth and Terrestrial Bodies, London: Richard Wilkin, Part 2, p. 110:
    • […] sooner, may all the Material World crumble into Incoherent Atoms, or relapse into the Abyss of Nothingness, than that any Conclusion, thus deduced, can be False […] 1696, John Sergeant, The Method to Science, London, Book 3, pp. 228-229:
    • […] Some hasty and undigested Thoughts, on a Subject I had never before considered, which I set down against our next Meeting, gave the first entrance into this Discourse, which having been thus begun by Chance, was continued by Intreaty; written by incoherent parcels; and, after long intervals of neglect, resum'd again, as my Humour or Occasions permitted; and at last, in a retirement, where an Attendence on my Health gave me leisure, it was brought into that order thou now seest it. 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, London: Thomas Basset, The Epistle to the Reader:
  3. Not coherent. ▸ Not cohering socially, not united.
    • […] because I am an American writer my subject and my material inevitably has to be a handful of incoherent people in an incoherent country. 1961, James Baldwin, James Baldwin: Collected Essays, New York: Library of America, published 1998, page 223:
    • At this stage the labourers still form an incoherent mass scattered over the whole country, and broken up by their mutual competition. 1888, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, translated by Samuel Moore, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, published 1906, page 25:
    • I was glad, now, to be out of Karhide, an incoherent land driven towards violence by a paranoid, pregnant king and an egomaniac Regent. 1969, Ursula K. Le Guin, chapter 8, in The Left Hand of Darkness, New York: Ace, published 2010:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
incohærent alternative lexicographic
more incoherent Degree=Cmp lexicographic
most incoherent Degree=Sup lexicographic

Antonyms

coherent

Deriveds

incoherency · incoherentness

Relateds

incoherence · incoherently

Synonyms

uncoherent · discontinuous · unrelated · jerky · disconnected · unintelligible · disjointed · desultory

Translations (45)

it sconclusionato (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · de unzusammenhängend (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · fi sekava (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · pl niekoherentny (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · eo nekohera (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · de nicht zusammenhängend (not physically coherent) · ca incoherent (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · mi parure (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · es incoherente (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · de lose (not physically coherent) · pt incoerente (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · de nicht verbunden (not physically coherent) · de inkohärent (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · da usammenhængende (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · es inconexo (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · fi epäjohdonmukainen (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · es deshilvanado (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · el ασυνάρτητος (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · de unvereinbar (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · gl incoherente (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · fi ristiriitainen (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · ru несвя́зный (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · sv osammanhängande (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · cy anghysylltiol (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · it incoerente (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · mi nakunaku (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · ru несцементи́рованный (not physically coherent) · bg непоследователен (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · ru бессвя́зный (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · ru ры́хлый (not physically coherent) · pt incoerente (not physically coherent) · fr incohérent (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · cs nesouvislý (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · mi nanu (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · bg несвързан (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · cy digyswllt (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · de unlogisch (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · cs nesoudržný (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · mi whakaparure (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · mi ngau (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · fi hajanainen (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · pl nieścisły (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · fr décousu (lacking coherence, inconsistent) · fi epäyhtenäinen (not physically coherent) · es descosido (lacking coherence, inconsistent)