tenable
[ten-uh-buh l]
- capable of being held, maintained, or defended, as against attack or dispute: a tenable theory.
- capable of being occupied, possessed, held, or enjoyed, as under certain conditions: a research grant tenable for two years.
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Origin of tenable
Synonyms
See more synonyms for tenable on Thesaurus.com1. workable, viable, maintainable, warrantable.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for tenable
Contemporary Examples
Employee dumping is when employers find it tenable to pay the per-employee penalty for not providing health insurance.
That does not mean it is practical, advisable, tenable, moral or that it should be perpetual.
On the other hand, an exclusive focus on satisfaction is not tenable either.
Historical Examples
I do not think a single objection which is made to woman suffrage is tenable.
But this view, if tenable then, has long since been abandoned.
Albert GallatinJohn Austin Stevens
Truly, it is tenable that the world exists only in consciousness.
The Mutiny of the ElsinoreJack London
The reader must judge whether this position is tenable or not.
Thoughts on MissionsSheldon Dibble
It had been for some time seen that the town of Portsmouth was not a tenable post.
Hurricane HurryW.H.G. Kingston
tenable
- able to be upheld, believed, maintained, or defended
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Word Origin
C16: from Old French, from tenir to hold, from Latin tenēre
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for tenable
adj.
1570s, from Middle French tenable, from Old French (12c.), from tenir "to hold," from Latin tenere "hold, keep" (see tenet).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper