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tenable
used in a sentence

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Definition defensible — especially of an opinion or a position
  • Our position became less and less tenable.
tenable = defensible — especially of an opinion or a position
  • How can a slave also be a brother? Christians began to see the situation as untenable.
    Dinesh D'Souza  --  What's So Great About Christianity
    • (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • "I really wonder, sir," rejoined the old pupil in an argumentative manner, "to find you taking a position so untenable."
    Charles Dickens  --  Hard Times
    • untenable = not defensible
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • The more I thought about it, the more untenable my position seemed to be.
    Marcus Luttrell  --  Lone Survivor
    • untenable = not defensible
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?
    Arthur Conan Doyle  --  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
    • tenable = possible to defend
  • The situation is entirely untenable, and I know it.
    Sara Gruen  --  Water for Elephants
    • untenable = not defensible
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • For any thinking person, it's untenable.
    Ron Suskind  --  A Hope in the Unseen
    • untenable = not defensible
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • The situation was becoming untenable, anyway.
    Alexs Pate  --  Amistad
    • untenable = not defensible
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale,
    Douglas Adams  --  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    • tenable = defensible
  • Your position is untenable.
    Eoin Colfer  --  Artemis Fowl
    • untenable = not defensible
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • I cannot conceal from you, sir, that the camp will not be much longer tenable;
    James Fenimore Cooper  --  The Last of the Mohicans
    • tenable = defensible
  • I pray you all, If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight, Let it be tenable in your silence still;
    William Shakespeare  --  Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
    • tenable = defensible
  • SAC's bases in Africa and Spain would be untenable and melt away.
    Pat Frank  --  Alas, Babylon
    • untenable = not defensible
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • There are always untenable events, freak happenings like someone recognizing you, or at worst, the trouble results from a foolish and negligent spy, like my time with Luzan.
    Chang-rae Lee  --  Native Speaker
    • untenable = not defendable
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • But in the moonlight she could imagine people scrambling over flaming cars to escape the crumbling city, panicking in their flight from this untenable pile of metal and stone.
    Scott Westerfeld  --  Uglies
    • untenable = not defensible
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • I love to see that Nature is so rife with life that myriads can be afforded to be sacrificed and suffered to prey on one another; ... tadpoles which herons gobble up ... we must see how little account is to be made of it. The impression made on a wise man is that of universal innocence. ... Compassion is a very untenable ground.
    Henry David Thoreau  --  Walden
    • untenable = not defensible
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • The place was, in fact, becoming less and less tenable.
    Hugo, Victor  --  Notre-Dame de Paris
  • We are about to find ourselves, my friends, in a position that would not be tenable for people without brains.
    Dumas, Alexandre  --  Ten Years Later
  • You can appreciate that under these conditions, our situation had become untenable.
    Jules Verne  --  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
    • (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • The prairie became a gruesome, ghastly shambles; and the camps were almost untenable because of flies and bugs, ticks and mosquitoes.
    Zane Grey  --  The Thundering Herd
(editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)

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