Meaning & use
lack of cohesion
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Meaning
phraseuncountable
The state of not being united or not sticking together as a whole.
Grammar: Used as an uncountable noun phrase; it takes a singular verb: 'The lack of cohesion is obvious.'
Patterns
- lack of cohesion in something
- lack of cohesion among people
- a lack of cohesion between things
The team's lack of cohesion led to poor results.
There was a lack of cohesion in the essay, with each paragraph making a separate point.
The lack of cohesion among the departments made it hard to finish the project.
Common combinations
- lack of cohesion in
- The lack of cohesion in the group was clear from the start.
- a lack of cohesion between
- There is a lack of cohesion between the two sections of the report.
- suffer from a lack of cohesion
- The novel suffers from a lack of cohesion in its middle chapters.
- cause a lack of cohesion
- Poor communication can cause a lack of cohesion in any organization.
Synonyms and how they differ
- disunity
- Disunity is stronger and more often used for groups of people; lack of cohesion can also describe writing or abstract things.
- incoherence
- Incoherence is mainly about ideas or speech being hard to follow; lack of cohesion is about parts not fitting together well.
Opposites
Word family
- cohesion noun
- The state of sticking together or being united.
- cohesive adjective
- United and sticking together well.
- cohesively adverb
- In a way that shows unity or sticks together.
Commonly confused: lack of cohesion or lack of adhesion?
lack of cohesion vs lack of adhesion
Adhesion is physical sticking (like glue); cohesion is about parts of a group or text sticking together as a whole.
Practice
The committee's report was criticized for its ______, as the sections did not connect well.
Choose one answer.
'Lack of cohesion' fits best because it describes parts not sticking together as a whole. 'Lack of adhesion' is about physical sticking, and 'lack of coherence' is more about ideas being hard to follow, not about parts connecting.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lack of cohesion”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.