incoherence
/ˌɪnkəʊˈhɪəɹəns/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.32 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Something incoherent; something that does not make logical sense or is not logically connected.
Countable
noun
Thinking or speech that is so disorganized that it is essentially inapprehensible to others.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "HE DESCENDED, signifieth a voluntarie motion, where as the bodie dead hath neither WILL nor MOTION. […] Though therefore this exposition cannot be charged with falsitie, for Christ was trulie buried; yet may it not bee endured by reason of […] the improprietie and incoherence of the worde, that a deade corps should descend […]"
- "1680, Henry Care, The History of the Damnable Popish Plot, London: B.R. et al., Chapter 23, Section 2, p. 327, […] the said Lane is prevailed with […] to prefer an Indictment against Dr. Oates, for attempting to commit upon him the horrid and detestable sin of Sodomy; but the Grand Jury, by reason of the incoherence and slightness of his Evidence, did not think fit to finde it, but returned an Ignoramus."
- "Bulstrode went away now without anxiety as to what Raffles might say in his raving, which had taken on a muttering incoherence not likely to create any dangerous belief."
- "Lily’s head was so heavy with the weight of a sleepless night that the chatter of her companions had the incoherence of a dream."
- "My grandfather, accustomed to the multifarious conjugations of ancient Greek verbs, had found English, for all its incoherence, a relatively simple tongue to master."
- "1669, Robert Boyle, “The History of Fluidity and Firmness,” Section 16, in Certain Physiological Essays and Other Tracts, London: Henry Herringman, p. 182, […] if it [Salt-Petre] be beaten into an impalpable powder, this powder, when it is pour’d out, will emulate a Liquor, by reason that the smallness and incoherence of the parts do both make them easie to be put into motion […]"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in-bor. Middle English in- English in- Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Latin haereō Latin cohaereō Latin cohaerēns Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin cohaerentiader. Middle French coherenceder. English coherence English incoherence From in- + coherence, formed on model of Italian incoerenza.
Word Breakdown
- Prefix: in