Words / C2

TEN-uh-bl/ˈtenəbl/

Tenable means able to be defended, or (of a post) able to be held: a tenable claim, a three-year tenable fellowship. Untenable (this batch) is the opposite. Defensible is the plain cousin. Tenure is holding a post; tenacity (this batch) is not giving up. Do not call a pleasant office tenable.

Meaning

Able to be defended against objection; of a post, able to be held.

Examples

• “The claim is no longer tenable after the correction.”
• “The hypothesis was tenable until the second lab failed to replicate it.”
• “A post tenable for two years is HR English; a tenable argument is logic.”

Good to know

Defensible; of a job, able to be held. Opposite: untenable. Mix-up: tenacity (grit); tenure (holding a post). Plain: defensible.

Near in meaning

defensible

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