tenacity
- 1The quality of being tenacious: firm persistence in pursuing a purpose and refusing to give it up.
The older players were slower, but they made up for it with sheer tenacity.
It took years of tenacity for the reporter to get the records released.
Similarpersistence, determination, perseverance, doggedness, resolve
Oppositeirresolution
Note
Persistence is the sense closest to tenacious, the adjective the noun was formed from with -ity; Middle French ténacité and Latin tenācitās stand further back. A person who will not let go of a goal shares the word with a material that will not come apart, and the "holding together" meaning keeps that picture literal. Jorge Cham's PHD Comics (2009) gets a laugh from how close it sounds to tenure.
- 2The cohesive quality of a material whose parts hold together and resist separating except under considerable force, as distinct from brittleness or fragility.
Cast iron lacks the tenacity of wrought iron and can shatter under a sharp blow.
Climbers depend on the tenacity of nylon rope, which holds together under strain that would snap a weaker cord.
Similartoughness, strength, cohesion, durability
Oppositebrittleness, fragility
Note
Here the pull works inward, between the parts of a single body; its plainer name is cohesiveness. The clinging sense turns the same pull outward, toward other bodies, and since one word covers both, context has to decide. The tenacity of a rope means it will not come apart; the tenacity of tar means it will not let go of your boot.
- 3The quality that makes a substance cling or stick to other things, as an adhesive or viscous material does.
Workers struggled with the tenacity of the hot tar, which clung to every tool they used.
Gardeners curse the tenacity of heavy clay soil that clings to spades and boots alike.
Similarstickiness, adhesiveness, tackiness
Less common meaning
- 4The greatest lengthwise stress a substance can bear without tearing apart, usually stated as the force per unit of cross-sectional area needed to break it, such as pounds per square inch.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from tenac(ious) + -ity, and also from Middle French ténacité, which comes from Latin tenācitās.