Cohesive describes something that sticks together literally or figuratively. To get into the stickiness of the matter, look at the word’s etymology: cohesive ultimately derives from Latin haerere, meaning “to stick.” Other descendants of haerere in English include adhere (literally meaning “to stick”), its relative adhesive (a word for a substance for sticking things together), inhere (meaning “to belong by nature or habit”), and even hesitate (which implies remaining stuck in place before taking action). Haerere also teamed up with the prefix co– to form cohaerere, an ancestor of cohesive, cohesion (“a sticking together”), cohere (“to stick together”), and coherent (“able to stick together” or “logically consistent”).

Examples

“His hair was slicked artfully back from his brow in one cohesive wave.” — Kate Christensen, In the Drink, 1999

“Our closely-knit sales team had been doing great since we started working from home back in March and so far had been able to maintain performance goals. Part of what made the team cohesive before the pandemic was that we regularly engaged in fun social activities … where we could informally talk business.” — Eva Del Rio, The Gainesville (Florida) Sun, 24 Aug. 2020