Tenuous

Definitions: Tenuous

Tenuous

Adjective

1. Having little substance or significance; "a flimsy excuse"; "slight evidence"; "a tenuous argument"; "a thin plot".

2. Having thin consistency; "a tenuous fluid".

3. Very thin in gauge or diameter; "a tenuous thread".

Date "tenuous" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references)

Etymology: Tenuous \Ten"u*ous\, adjective. [Latin expression tenuis thin. See Thin, and compare to Tenuis.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Tenuous

Synonyms: flimsy (adj), slight (adj), thin (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Rarity	Adjective: rare, subtile, thin, fine, tenuous, compressible, flimsy, slight; light; cavernous, spongy. (hollow).
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Tenuous

English words defined with "tenuous": flimsy ♦ lens capsule ♦ slight, Subtile ♦ Tenuious, tenuously, thin. (references)

Specialty definitions using "tenuous": aeropause ♦ Weeble. (references)

Etymologies containing "tenuous": Tenuious, Tenuis. (references)

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	The shadow people that project upon us their shadow and remind us just how tenuous mental health is. Our worst fears. (Wonderland; writing credit: James Grissom)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Explorations with Siphoning: The Tenuous Growth of a Concept (Learning to See Video Series) (reference) Jabil Offers Encouraging Guidance in a Tenuous Marketplace [DOWNLOAD: PDF] (reference) Tenuous Balance: Conventional Forces in Central Europe (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Astronomers using the Hubble telescope have identified the presence of an extremely tenuous ...Credit: NASA.		A large tree has a tenacious, if tenuous, hold on an eroding bank along Solo Creek, Wye Island.Credit: America's Coastlines.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Civil Liberties	Burma	However, obtaining an informal approval from local authorities creates a tenuous legal situation. (references)
	Turkey	Journalist associations note that some persons imprisoned for media crimes are political activists with only tenuous journalistic credentials. (references)
	Afghanistan	War, tenuous security, and likely opposition from local authorities seriously inhibited freedom of assembly and association during most of the year, particularly in areas that were under Taliban control. (references)
Economic History	Cambodia	Security in some rural areas was tenuous, and major transportation routes were subject to interdiction by resistance forces. (references)
	Ecuador	Security on the northern border with Colombia, where construction of Ecuador's new oil export pipeline is slated to begin in August 2001, is particularly tenuous. (references)
	Ukraine	Given the tenuous commercial environment and the weak legal infrastructure, it is essential to obtain solid legal advice in structuring your company's investment. (references)
Human Rights	Malawi	Its use often bears only a tenuous relationship to the merits of an individual's situation. (references)
	Indonesia	By year's end, the army was able to quell the violence, and a tenuous peace agreement was negotiated. (references)
	Nicaragua	However, law enforcement groups, human rights organizations, and political analysts described the political motivations as tenuous and stated that most of these actions were purely criminal in nature. (references)
Minorities	Armenia	There is no formally operating mosque, although Yerevan's one surviving 18th century mosque, which was restored with Iranian funding, is open for regular Friday prayers on a tenuous legal basis. (references)
Political Economy	Lithuania	The parliamentary system is vigorous, while the governing coalitions can be quite tenuous resulting in frequent personnel changes at the cabinet level. (references)
	Azerbaijan	The overall economic situation of the average citizen remains tenuous; although a growing moneyed class has emerged in Baku, over 60 percent of the population live in poverty, according to World Bank statistics. (references)
Worker Rights	Mauritania	Children's legal status is more tenuous than that of adults. (references)
	Israel and the occupied territories	However, some NGO's suggest that illegal workers often live in situations amounting to involuntary servitude, due primarily to their tenuous legal status. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Tenuous" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.60% of the time. "Tenuous" is used about 250 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	99.6%	249	18,850
Noun (proper)	0.4%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	250	N/A

Expression using "tenuous": tenuous volume of poems. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "tenuous"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		i rralluar (rare, thin), i parëndësishëm (dispensable, exiguous, immaterial, inconsequential, indifferent, inessential, insignificant, light, minor, minute, negligible, nugatory, one horse, paltry, petty, piddling, puny, small, small time, tin, trivial, unessential, unimportant), i hollë (dainty, delicate, dinky, discerning, egg shell, exquisite, flimsy, gauzy, gossamer, gossamery, ingenious, keen, liny, meager, meagre, nice, paper, papery, perceptive, percipient, perspicacious, politic, sleazy, slender, slim, small, spidery, spindling, spindly, subtile, subtle, thin, Twiggy, washy). (various references)

Arabic		‏هش (brash, brittle, crisp, fragile, friable, powdery, short, shortened, tender), ‏لطيف (affable, agreeable, amiable, benign, bland, charming, civil, civilized, complaisance, complaisant, courteous, courtly, decent, delicate, fair, fair-spoken, fine, friendly, genial, gentle, good natured, gracious, handsome, kind, kindly, light, mild, nice, pet, pleasant, polite, poppet, pretty, refreshing, smooth, soft, suave, sweet, tender, thin, urbane), ‏قليل الكثافة (rare), ‏غير ثابت (movable, precarious, problematic, rocky, unsound), ‏عابر (ephemeral, fleeting, in transit, parlous, passing, precarious, sneak, stealthy, transient, transitory), ‏طفيف (incommodious, inconsiderable, skin deep, slight, small, trivial), ‏ضعيف (atonic, cold, crazy, deficient, delicate, dim, emaciated, enervate, faint, feckless, feeble, flabby, flagging, fragile, frail, haggard, helpless, impotent, inaudible, infirm, invertebrate, lame, languid, languorous, lank, lean, limp, little, low, lower, nerveless, pale, powered, powerless, puny, rickety, run down, scant, scrawny, slender, slight, slim, small, soft, softy, streaked, supine, thin, thready, toothless, unsubstantial, wan, weak, weakened, weakling, weakly, wimp, wishy washy), ‏رقيق (aerial, affectionate, airy, angelic, bland, bleeding heart, dainty, delicate, feminine, filmy, fine, flimsy, fluffy, fragile, frothy, gauzy, gentle, gingerly, gossamery, gracious, hearty, kind hearted, kindly, lovely, mellow, mincing, nice, orchidaceous, pastel, photogenic, piano, quiet, refined, romance, sharp, sloppy, smooth, soft-hearted, suave, subtle, sugary, superfine, tender, thin, thinning, tilery, trick, warm, watery). (various references)

Bulgarian		слаб (defective, dim, effeminate, faint, feeble, flabby, flaccid, flat, flimsy, impotent, irretentive, lame, lean, light, limp, liny, low, meager, meagre, mean, mild, nerveless, off, pale, poor, puny, queasy, rickety, scanty, scrannel, sick, sinewless, slack, sleazy, slender, slight, slim, slow, sluggish, small, soft, spare, spineless, tender, thin, thready, unable, washy, watery, weak, weakish, weakly), разреден (dilute, diluted, rare, reduced, small, thin), тънък (acute, cobwebby, fine, gauzy, hairsplitting, high pitched, jimp, lightweight, liny, neat, nice, niggling, reedy, sheer, shrewd, sleazy, slender, slight, slim, subtle, subulate, thin, threadlike, thready, willowy), неуловим (elusive, evasive, impalpable, imperceptible, inappreciable, intangible, volatile), незначителен (cheap, dinky, fiddling, fractional, frivolous, immaterial, imperceptible, inappreciable, inconsiderable, inessential, inglorious, insignificant, least, little, mean, minor, minute, negligible, niggling, nominal, noteless, nugatory, obscure, one horse, outside, paltry, peddling, pettifogging, petty, picayune, piddling, piffling, pimping, pokey, poky, poor, potty, puerile, pygmy, rabbity, scrubby, slight, small, small time, subfusc, third class, tiddly, trifling, trivial, two-by-four, twopenny-halfpenny, unconsidered, unimportant), лек (airy, bland, cool, cure, cushy, easy, expedite, facile, fairy, flimsy, gentle, gossamer, gossamery, gradual, lambent, lenient, light, lightsome, lightweight, medicine, mild, mobile, potty, quiet, remedy, skyey, slick, slight, snap, soft, subtle, unsound, unsubstantial), беден (fortuneless, humble, hungry, impecunious, indigent, jejune, meager, meagre, mean, moneyless, necessitous, needful, needy, penniless, penurious, pokey, poky, poor, poorly off, poverty stricken, scanty, shabby, thin). (various references)

Chinese		细. (various references)

Czech		tenký (fine, skinny, slim, small, thin), slabý (bad, decrepit, delicate, faint, fainting, feeble, fragile, frail, light, low, slack, wan, watery, weak, weakly, weak-minded, weary), nejistý (afloat, chancy, cloudy, doubtful, dubious, faltering, fluid, halting, insecure, jumpy, precarious, shaky, suspensive, uncertain, undecided, uneasy, uneven, unsafe, unsettled, unsound, unsure), nejasný (abstruse, ambiguous, dim, dimmish, equivocal, faint, fuzzy, hazy, indeterminate, indistinct, misty, obscure, stolid, unclear, vague, woolly), jemný (bland, dainty, delicate, fine, gentle, graceful, gracious, light, milky, nice, silken, silky, soft, suave, subtle, superfine, sweet, tender, thin, wispy), řídký (far between, few and far between, infrequent, rare, runny, scarce, sparse, thin, washy). (various references)

Farsi		نازک (Attenuate, Eggshell, Ethereal, Fine, Frail, Gossamer, Slim, Soft, Spare), لطیف (Benign, Delicate, Fine, Gaseous, Gentle, Gossamer, Rare, Rosewater, Soft, Subtle, Tender, Volatile), رفیق (Associate, Billy, Boyfriend, Buddy, Comate, Comrade, Fere, Friend, Mate, Peer, Yokefellow), دقیق (Accurate, Astringent, Astute, Exquisite, Literal, Particular, Precise, Precision, Punctilious, Punctual, Scholastic, Scrutinizer, Set, Sound, Stringent, Subtle, Tender, Watchful, Wistful), باریک (Capillary, Linear, Narrow, Slat, Slender, Slice, Strait, Tender, Thin), بدون نقطه اتکاء . (various references)

French		ténu, raréfié, précaire, mince, frugal (temperate), fragile (tender), faible. (various references)

German		dünn (filiform, fine, finely, flimsy, gaunt, lank, lean, rare, rarefied, skinny, sparse, sparsely, spindly, tabular, tenuously, thin, thinly, thinn, watery, weak). (various references)

Greek		πολύ λεπτόσ, λεπτόσ (dainty, delicate, exquisite, fine, flimsy, gossamery, lank, nice, rangy, refined, sleazy, slender, slight, slim, slimsy, subtile, subtle, svelte, tactful, thin, ticklish, waspish), αραιόσ (rare, sparse, thin, washy). (various references)

Hebrew		קלוש (flimsy, rare, scanty, sparse, weak), �"ליל (diluted, sparse, thin, weak), �"קיק (fine, flimsy, very thin), רקיק (biscuit, snap, wafer). (various references)

Hungarian		vékony (attenuate, fine, flimsy, gaunt, lank, lean, reedy, sheer, sleazy, slender, slight, slim, thin, thinner, wispy), finom (cheesy, choice, classy, crackerjack, dainty, delicate, delicious, discerning, elegant, filigree, fine, genteel, ladylike, light, mellow, nice, pure, refined, screening, sedate, silky, snappy, subtle, tasty). (various references)

Italian		tenue (empty, faint, feeble, slender, slight, soft, subtile, subtle), debole (dim, failing, faint, feeble, feebleminded, flimsy, frail, gone, helpless, impotent, infirm, light, nerveless, pale, powerless, strengthless, thin, unsound, weak, weak point, weakly). (various references)

Manx		thanney (attenuated, flimsy, hollow, hollow as friendship, lank, lanky, lean, meagre, rare, scraggy, shallow, sharp face, skinny, slender, slim, sparely built, thin, thin as paper, thin in build, thin of liquid, watery, watery of colour, watery of soup liquid, wateryliquid, weak, weak as solution, weedy). (various references)

Pig Latin		enuoustay

Portuguese		ténue (airy, gossip, thin), leve (buoyant, fleet-footed, flowing, fluid, gauzy, gentle, glib, gossamer, light, light-legged, remote, sleazy, slight, slim, tripping, weightless), fino (braw, choice, dainty, delicate, dressy, exquisite, fine, gallant, gaunt, gentian, gentlemanly, gossamer, keen, knowing, lean, nice, Nobby, out and out, posit, refined, select, sharp, sheer, sleazy, slender, slim, smart, stylish, subtil, subtile, subtle, tactful, tasteful, thin, well bred, well-made, wispy), delgado (elongate, fine, gaunt, lank, lean, reedy, sleazy, slender, slight, slim, thin, wispy). (various references)

Romanian		subtil (acute, delicate, fine, fine-spun, insidious, nice, refined, sagacious, shrewd, subtle, subtly), subţire (choice, cunning, delicate, filmy, fine, fine-drawn, flimsy, hour-glass, jejune, papery, reedy, refined, shrewd, shrill, skinny, slender, slight, slim, sly, small, spidery, squeamish, stalky, subtle, tall, thin, thinly, weak, wiry), rarefiat (attenuate, thin), rafinat (clever, courtly, dainty, delicate, exquisite, fine, parliamentary, refined, sophisticated, subtle), fin (beautiful, choice, delicate, delicately, discriminating, excellent, fine, fine-drawn, finely, fine-spun, godchild, godson, gossamer, graceful, keen, nice, penetrating, quick, refined, select, sharp, shrewd, slender, soft, spidery, subtile, subtly). (various references)

Russian		разреженный (expanded, rare, rarefied, thin). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		tanan (sensitive), tanak (fine, finespun, gossamer, light, liny, scone, scrannel, sleazy, slender, slight, thin, weak, wispy), slab (dickey, dicky, feckless, feeble, flabby, frail, infirm, languid, languorous, low, meager, meagre, nerveless, poor, powerless, punk, remote, short, sickly, slim, thin, trick, undernourished, unlikely, washy, weak). (various references)

Spanish		tenue (faint, gracile, remote, subtle, thin, weak). (various references)

Swedish		tunn (fine, flimsy, gaunt, lean, light, rare, sheer, sleazy, slender, thin, wispy), svag (faint, feckless, feeble, flimsy, fragile, frail, gone, impuissant, infirm, insubstantial, lame, light, low, mild, milk and water, off, reckling, rickety, shaky, shallow, small, subtle, unsound, weak, weak-kneed, weakly), smal (close, cramped, gaunt, lean, narrow, slender, slim, thin), obetydlig (baubling, dinky, fiddling, footling, fractional, fractionary, frivolous, futile, inappreciable, inconsequent, inconsequential, inconsiderable, insignificant, little, low, lowly, mean, minute, negligible, nobody, nugatory, one horse, peddling, picayune, piddling, slight, trivial), fin (aristocratic, bully, choice, clean, dainty, delicate, delicious, dignified, discriminating, elegant, excellent, fine, finespun, first rate, gentee, genteel, grand, handsome, high pitched, keen, ladylike, nice, polished, refined, select, sensitive, slender, smart, soft, superior, swell, tactful, tender, thin). (various references)

Turkish		seyrek (few and far between, infrequent, rare, scarce, scattered, seldom, sparse, straggly, thin), incecik (as thin as a wafer, fine, fine-spun, paperthin, thready, very fine, very thin, wafer-thin, wispy), ince (attenuate, attic, brittle, civilized, courteous, dainty, delicate, fine, fragile, graceful, gracile, gracious, keen, lean, nice, polite, precision, refined, scarious, sharp, slender, slim, subtile, subtle, sylphish, sylphlike, sylphy, thin, trickish, tricksy, tricky, urbane, vaporous), hafif (airy, blancmange, cushy, digestible, distant, dulcet, easy of digestion, feeble, feint, frail, frivolous, lenient, light, lightly, lightweight, loose, mild, piano, slight, small, soft, subdued, unsound, unsubstantial, weak, wishy washy). (various references)

Ukranian		слабкий (bedrid, characterless, crank, delicate, faint, feeble, flagging, languishing, lax, limp, nerveless, one horse, pale, queasy, slack, tender, weak, weakly), розріджений (attenuate, attenuated, rarefied), тонкий (acute, capillary, gauzy, nice, sleazy, slim, soft, spidery, subtile, subtle, thin), бідний (bare, barren, destitute, fortuneless, lean, necessitous, needful, needy, one horse, pauper, penurious, poor, scrannel, shabby, underprivileged). (various references)

Vietnamese		nhỏ (miniature, minute, off, small, young). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	tenuis. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "tenuous": tenuously, tenuousness, tenuousnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Tenuous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Fenioux, temuos, temuous, tenaous, tennuis, tennuous, tenous, tenovus, tenuos, tenurus, tenvous, tinamou, tinamous. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "tenuous" (pronounced te"nyuwus)
5	-y u w u s	unambiguous.
4	-u w u s	fatuous, presumptuous, sensuous, tortuous, voluptuous.
3	-w u s	assiduous, impetuous, incestuous, inconspicuous, marquess, promiscuous, sinuous, sumptuous, unctuous.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-n-o-s-t-u-u"
	-2 letters: notes, onset, seton, snout, steno, stone, tones, tonus, touse, tunes, unset.
	-3 letters: eons, nest, nets, noes, nose, note, nous, nuts, ones, onus, oust, outs, sent, snot, sone, stun, suet, tens, toes, tone, tons, tune, tuns, unto.
	-4 letters: ens, eon, net, nos, not, nus, nut, oes, one, ons, ose, out, sen, set, son, sot, sou, sue, sun, ten, toe, ton, tun, uns, use, uts.
	-5 letters: en, es, et, ne, no, nu, oe, on, os, so, to, un, us, ut.
	Words containing the letters "e-n-o-s-t-u-u"
	+1 letter: nuthouse, unquotes.
	+2 letters: bounteous, cutaneous, dentulous, glutenous, nuthouses, strenuous, tenuously, untimeous, venturous.
	+3 letters: autogenous, consuetude, countersue, edentulous, incestuous, outnumbers, outpunches, outstunted, stupendous, subroutine, surmounted, thunderous, unsoundest.
	+4 letters: adventurous, bluetongues, botulinuses, bounteously, consuetudes, countersued, countersues, countersuit, countersunk, cutaneously, fatuousness, outguessing, outrebounds, sleuthhound, strenuously, subcounties, subroutines, tenuousness, tourniquets, uncouthness, undercounts, unobtrusive, unrighteous, unsupported, venturously.
	+5 letters: autogenously, buttonbushes, cautiousness, conjunctures, contemptuous, contumelious, countercoups, countersuing, countersuits, doubtfulness, hebetudinous, incestuously, lustrousness, monocultures, mournfullest, mutinousness, neuropterous, neurulations, outintrigues, outmaneuvers, percutaneous, seropurulent, simultaneous, sleuthhounds, studiousness, stupendously, subcutaneous, superconduct, surmountable, thunderously, tortuousness, unaccustomed, unctuousness, unfortunates, unobstructed, unquestioned, untouchables, virtuousness, youthfulness.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.