Word of the Day

: September 24, 2009

cogent

adjective KOH-junt

What It Means

1 : having power to compel or constrain

2 a : appealing forcibly to the mind or reason : convincing

b : pertinent, relevant

cogent in Context

At the town meeting, citizens presented many cogent arguments in support of building a new high school.

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.