cogent
adjective
Did you know?
"Trained, knowledgeable agents make cogent suggestions ... that make sense to customers." It makes sense for us to include that comment from the president of a direct marketing consulting company because it provides such a nice opportunity to point out the etymological relationship between the words cogent and agent. Agent derives from the Latin verb agere, which means "to drive," "to lead," or "to act." Adding the prefix co- to agere gave Latin cogere, a word that literally means "to drive together"; that ancient term ultimately gave English cogent. Something that is cogent figuratively pulls together thoughts and ideas, and the cogency of an argument depends on the driving intellectual force behind it.
Synonyms
- compelling
- conclusive
- convincing
- decisive
- effective
- forceful
- persuasive
- satisfying
- strong
- telling
Example Sentences
David Hajdu, Mother Jones, September/October 2003 Your article provides cogent reading. Mario Cuomo, letter U.S. News & World Report, 23 Mar. 1992 Your arguments, whether or not one agrees with them, are generally cogent, and at times elegantly expressed. Willard R. Espy, letter Wall Street Journal, 24 Apr. 1990 The author … makes a cogent and finely nuanced case for the wisdom—indeed, the necessity of this vision. Marian Sandmaier, New York Times Book Review, 8 Feb. 1987 the results of the DNA fingerprinting were the most cogent evidence for acquittal Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Sep. 2022 Balancing this demand against the practicalities of providing a cogent legal defense will offer challenges that few lawyers ordinarily face. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 18 Aug. 2022 Any kind of cogent curatorial principle is beside the point, which is to try to do something interesting, rather than simply move product. New York Times, 20 July 2022 The gesture was widely derided by activists on the left, who denounced the lack of a cogent response from President Biden or from Congress to a ruling that had been anticipated for weeks. Annie Karni, BostonGlobe.com, 11 July 2022 One man’s elevated, cogent truth is another man’s liberal tears. Mark Athitakis, Los Angeles Times, 6 July 2022 On that basis, a competent statistician might expect the distributions of cogent and tendentious letter-writers to the The New York Review of Books to be bell-shaped. Jessica Riskin, The New York Review of Books, 21 Apr. 2022 Have a cogent understanding of your organization's business practices and security issues and look at the potential risks of changing those processes to include AI/ML tools. Lee Hutchinson, Ars Technica, 19 May 2022 Bizarre and wrongheaded statements are protected by the First Amendment just as cogent and thoughtful ones are. Ronald Sullivan, The Conversation, 9 May 2022 See More Word History
borrowed from Latin cōgent-, cōgens, present participle of cōgere "to drive together, gather, compress, force, compel," from co-, variant before a vowel and h of com- com- + agere "to drive (cattle), be in motion, do" — more at agent
1659, in the meaning defined at sense 2
cogent
adjective
Synonyms & Similar Words
- compelling
- convincing
- conclusive
- persuasive
- strong
- valid
- decisive
- effective
- forceful
- satisfying
- definitive
- authoritative
- telling
- relevant
- important
- pertinent
- sound
- significant
- well-founded
- weighty
- material
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- unconvincing
- unpersuasive
- inconclusive
- ineffective
- uncompelling
- unsound
- shaky
- irrelevant
- unfounded
- indecisive
- invalid
- groundless
- insignificant
- unimportant
- feeble
- inconsequential
- immaterial
- weak
Synonym Chooser
Some common synonyms of cogent are convincing, sound, telling, and valid. While all these words mean "having such force as to compel serious attention and usually acceptance," cogent may stress either weight of sound argument and evidence or lucidity of presentation.
The synonyms convincing and cogent are sometimes interchangeable, but convincing suggests a power to overcome doubt, opposition, or reluctance to accept.
The meanings of sound and cogent largely overlap; however, sound implies a basis of flawless reasoning or of solid grounds.
While the synonyms telling and cogent are close in meaning, telling stresses an immediate and crucial effect striking at the heart of a matter.
The words valid and cogent are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, valid implies being supported by objective truth or generally accepted authority.