Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Appealing to the intellect or powers of reasoning; convincing: synonym: valid.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Compelling by physical force; potent; irresistible by physical means.
  • Compelling assent or conviction; appealing powerfully to the intellect or moral sense; not easily denied or refuted: as, a cogent reason or argument.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Compelling, in a physical sense; powerful.
  • adjective Having the power to compel conviction or move the will; constraining; conclusive; forcible; powerful; not easily reasisted.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Reasonable and convincing; based on evidence.
  • adjective Appealing to the intellect or powers of reasoning.
  • adjective Forcefully persuasive.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective powerfully persuasive

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin cōgēns, cōgent-, present participle of cōgere, to force : co-, co- + agere, to drive; see ag- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin cōgēns, present active participle of cōgō ("drive together, compel"), from + agō ("drive").

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Examples

Comments

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  • The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power.

    (John Stuart Mill)

    March 21, 2008

  • "a cogent and concise narrative"

    January 23, 2009

  • chess openings

    October 3, 2010

  • “Compelling by physical force; potent; irresistible by physical force.”

    ^ this doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the definitions.

    October 27, 2017