1
Core quality
Impossible to defend, justify, support, or maintain in light of the evidence or circumstances.
Example
Newly dated fossils made the earlier chronology untenable.
untenable
/ʌnˈtenəbəl/ · un-TEN-uh-buladjective
Impossible to defend, justify, support, or maintain in light of the evidence or circumstances.
Use untenable to express this relationship precisely: impossible to defend, justify, support, or maintain in light of the evidence or circumstances.
What untenable Really Means
The word becomes easier to use when its closely related senses are separated and compared.
2
Attributive or predicative use
Use this adjective before a suitable noun or after a linking verb such as be or seem.
Example
The committee abandoned an untenable position.
3
Analytical distinction
Choose it when this exact descriptive quality matters; a related word may overlap without conveying the same trait.
Example
Without the disputed assumption, the argument becomes untenable.
Use untenable Naturally
Notice how the surrounding noun or clause reveals the exact shade of meaning.
Newly dated fossils made the earlier chronology untenable.
The committee abandoned an untenable position.
Without the disputed assumption, the argument becomes untenable.
Precision Matters
Untenable overlaps with several common words, but each carries a different emphasis.
untenable
vs.Means impossible to defend, justify, support, or maintain in light of the evidence or circumstances.
tenuous
Means weak, slight, or insufficiently supported.
untenable
vs.Means impossible to defend, justify, support, or maintain in light of the evidence or circumstances.
spurious
Means false, invalid, or not genuine despite appearing plausible.
untenable
vs.Means impossible to defend, justify, support, or maintain in light of the evidence or circumstances.
refute
Means to prove that a claim is false.
untenable
vs.Means impossible to defend, justify, support, or maintain in light of the evidence or circumstances.
substantiate
Means to support or establish a claim with evidence.
Test untenable in Context
The explanation could no longer be defended or supported.
1
Once the control trials contradicted every prediction, the original explanation was ___.