cohere

Verb

cohere (third-person singular simple present coheres, present participle cohering, simple past and past participle cohered)

1. (intransitive) To stick together physically, by adhesion.
   • Separate molecules will cohere because of electromagnetic force.
   • Nothing coheres the way you expect. Substances float around each other until you crush them all with a blender.2018 July 19, Zoe Williams, “Can ditching meat and dairy open up new taste sensations? My week as a foodie vegan”, in The Guardian
2. (figuratively, intransitive) To be consistent as part of a group, or by common purpose.
   • Members of the party would cohere in the message they were sending.
   • That dream of beautiful Paris was not likely to cohere into substance in the presence of this misfortune.1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC
3. (figuratively, transitive) To be consistent as part of a group, or by common purpose.
   • This division suggests that Khamenei is not playing his usual role of cohering the regime during a crisis.2022 October 2, Nicholas Carl, Kitaneh Fitzpatrick, Zachary Coles, and Frederick W. Kagan, “Iran Crisis Update, October 2”, in Iran Project, Institute for the Study of War