tenable

adjective

ten·​a·​ble ˈte-nə-bəl How to pronounce tenable (audio)
: capable of being held, maintained, or defended : defensible, reasonable
tenability noun
tenableness noun
tenably adverb

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Hold Onto the Meaning of Tenable

Tenable means "holdable". In the past it was often used in a physical sense—for example, to refer to a city that an army was trying to "hold" militarily against an enemy force. But nowadays it's almost always used when speaking of "held" ideas and theories. If you hold an opinion but evidence appears that completely contradicts it, your opinion is no longer tenable. So, for example, the old ideas that cancer is infectious or that being bled by leeches can cure your whooping cough now seem untenable.

Examples of tenable in a Sentence

the soldiers' encampment on the open plain was not tenable, so they retreated to higher ground the tenable theory that a giant meteor strike set off a chain of events resulting in the demise of the dinosaurs
Recent Examples on the Web While he’s been effective when healthy this year, throwing together a spread pick-and-roll offense around him on the fly probably isn’t tenable. Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 8 Mar. 2024 The unusual program was designed to make staying in an increasingly unaffordable city more tenable for thousands of families, whose continued presence would also benefit the city’s economy. Troy Closson, New York Times, 27 Feb. 2024 The judges concluded that that was not a tenable standard. Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post, 1 Dec. 2023 But as the embers of war glow in the region, this gambit becomes less and less tenable. Arash Azizi, The Atlantic, 12 Jan. 2024 This kind of timeline is not tenable when urgent change is needed. Sumant Sinha, Forbes, 28 Nov. 2023 Over time that view became less tenable, in part because of Cutler's contributions. Christine Kenneally, Scientific American, 17 Oct. 2023 Licensing a more geopolitically tenable HALEU supply chain, then, is a priority for any U.S.-based SMR project. IEEE Spectrum, 14 Apr. 2023 One thing appears certain, however: most appear to agree remaining on X isn’t tenable. Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 17 Aug. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tenable.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French, going back to Old French, "capable of being defended against attack," from tenir "to hold, have possession of" + -able -able — more at tenant entry 1

First Known Use

1579, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of tenable was in 1579

Dictionary Entries Near tenable

Cite this Entry

“Tenable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tenable. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

tenable

adjective
ten·​a·​ble ˈten-ə-bəl How to pronounce tenable (audio)
: capable of being held, maintained, or defended
a tenable argument

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