[ad. L. cohærēntia: see prec. and -ENCY.] The quality of being coherent or of hanging together in any respect.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, I. xxv. (1632), 70. Whatsoever had no coherencie with it [Aristotle’s doctrine], was but fond Chimeraes.
1611. Cotgr., Entretenement, a coherencie, or hanging of things together; an vninterrupted continuation of matters.
1692. Bentley, 8 Serm., iv. (1724), 132 (J.). All Matter is either Fluid or Solid, in a large acceptation of the words, that they may comprehend even all the middle degrees between extreme Fixedness and Coherency, and the most rapid intestine motion of the Particles of Bodies.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857), I. 24. The activity and the coherency of thought displayed by the Greek mind.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., II. 27. The Protestants were thus isolated … with nothing to give them coherency as a party.
1883. J. Fiske, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 414/1. The indissoluble coherency of the American Union.
