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The Latin verb haerēre has shown remarkable stick-to-itiveness in influencing the English lexicon, which is fitting for a word that means "to be closely attached; to stick." Among its descendants are adhere (literally meaning "to stick"), adhere’s relative adhesive (a word for sticky substances), inhere (meaning "to belong by nature or habit"), and even hesitate (which implies remaining stuck in place before taking action). In Latin, haerēre teamed up with the prefix co- to form cohaerēre, which means "to stick together." Cohaerēre is the ancestor of cohesive, a word borrowed into English in the early 18th century to describe something that sticks together literally (such as dough or mud) or figuratively (such as a society or sports team).
Examples of cohesive in a Sentence
Elizabeth Stamp, Architectural Digest, 10 Feb. 2026
Building legal structures that hold up over time When done correctly, strategic legal structures bring entity design, trust planning, governance, and real economic purpose together into one cohesive system.
—Malana Vantyler, USA Today, 10 Feb. 2026
Modern bathrooms favor simple, cohesive, single-tone or large-format tiles.
—Sarah Lyon, The Spruce, 9 Feb. 2026
What could be more symbolic of a world uniting in divisive times than literally splicing together a handful of geographically separate events for a global audience to consume as a more or less cohesive whole?
—Judy Berman, Time, 7 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for cohesive
Cite this Entry
“Cohesive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cohesive. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
cohesive
adjective
