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Authoritative vs Cogency - What's the difference?

authoritative | cogency |

As an adjective authoritative

is arising or originating from a figure of authority.

As a noun cogency is

the state of being cogent; the characteristic or quality of being reasonable and persuasive.

authoritative

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Arising or originating from a figure of authority
    • The authoritative rules in this school come not from the headmaster but from the aged matron.
  • Highly accurate or definitive; treated or worthy of treatment as a scholarly authority
    • This book is the world's most authoritative guide to insect breeding habits.
  • Having a commanding style.
    • He instructed us in that booming, authoritative voice of his.

    Synonyms

    * (highly accurate) definitive; precise, proper * (from a position of authority) of record

    Derived terms

    * authoritatively * authoritativeness

    cogency

    English

    Noun

    (cogencies)
  • The state of being cogent; the characteristic or quality of being reasonable and persuasive.
  • * 1781 , , "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 , , "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

    * * * * * Oxford English Dictionary , second edition (1989) * Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary (1987-1996)