different between meaning vs cogency

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mi?n??/
• Rhymes: -i?n??

Etymology 1

From Middle English mening, menyng, equivalent to mean +? -ing. Cognate with Scots mening (“intent, purpose, sense, meaning”), West Frisian miening (“opinion, mind”), Dutch mening (“view, opinion, judgement”), German Meinung (“opinion, view, mind, idea”), Danish and Swedish mening (“meaning, sense, sentence, opinion”), Icelandic meining (“meaning”).

Noun

meaning (countable and uncountable, plural meanings)

1. (of words, expressions or symbols)
   1. The denotation, referent, or idea connected with a word, expression, or symbol.

      • Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."

   2. The connotation associated with a word, expression, or symbol.
2. The purpose, value, or significance (of something) beyond the fact of that thing's existence.

   The number of persons attending the vigil had a lot of meaning to the families.

3. (of a person's actions) Intention.
   • c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War

     It was their meaning to take what they needed by strong hand.

Synonyms

• (denotation of words etc.): definition
• (connotation of words etc.):
• (purpose, significance):
• (of a person's actions): goal, aim, plan, intent

Hyponyms

• proposition

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From mean +? -ing.

Verb

meaning

1. present participle of mean

Adjective

meaning (comparative more meaning, superlative most meaning)

1. Having a (specified) intention.
2. Expressing some intention or significance; meaningful.
   • 1839, Edgar Allan Poe, "William Wilson"

     I might, to-day, have been a better, and thus a happier man, had I less frequently rejected the counsels embodied in those meaning whispers which I then but too cordially hated and too bitterly despised.

   • 1978, Jane Gardam, God on the Rocks, Abacus 2014, p. 160:

     [T]he new friends […] knew nothing and did not particularly care to hear about the beautiful mother with her long, meaning looks and liquid dresses and distant smile.

References

• meaning at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• amening

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

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