cogency

English

Noun

cogency (countable and uncountable, plural cogencies)

  1. The state of being cogent; the characteristic or quality of being reasonable and persuasive.
    • 1781, Samuel Johnson, "Addison," in Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets, J. Nichols (London), vol. 5, page 156:
      All the enchantment of fancy, and all the cogency of argument, are employed to recommend to the reader his real interest.
    • 1928, Richard McKeon, "Thomas Aquinas' Doctrine of Knowledge and Its Historical Setting," Speculum, vol. 3, no. 4 (Oct), page 444:
      A philosophic study of the development of philosophies should be content to seek out the bases and cogencies of philosophies rather than engage upon a nostalgic search for sympathetic doctrines.

References

  • cogency in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
  • cogency in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
  • cogency” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  • cogency” in Microsoft's Encarta World English Dictionary, North American Edition (2007)
  • Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
  • Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary (1987-1996)
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