English

Noun

cogency ‎(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, v1.0.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.
• “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)