tenacity means the quality or state of being tenacious, or persistence of purpose; tenaciousness. It carries an Arena rating of 1818, earned across 15 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, tenacity ranks #280 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #394 of 42,762 for Qualifying, #1,910 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,091 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
tenacity is pronounced /təˈnæs.ɪ.ti/.
Why “tenacity” is a great word
The quality or state of being persistent and determined in holding to a purpose or course of action. From Middle French ténacité, from Latin tenācitās, from tenāx, tenācis ("holding fast, tenacious") + -itās ("-ity"). Unlike "persistence," which suggests steady, sometimes neutral continuance, or "fragility," which denotes a ready breaking, tenacity is the gritty, adhesive force that thrives on resistance. It is the burr clinging to a woolen sock, the rusted bolt that will not turn, and the last ember glowing defiantly in a hearth of cold ashes—a quiet testament to the profound power of simply not letting go.
Etymology
From Middle French ténacité, from Latin tenācitās (whence -acity).
noun
- The quality or state of being tenacious, or persistence of purpose; tenaciousness.
- The quality of bodies which keeps them from parting without considerable force, as distinguished from brittleness, fragility, mobility, etc.
- The effect of this attraction, cohesiveness.
- The quality of bodies which makes them adhere to other bodies; adhesiveness, viscosity.
- The greatest longitudinal stress a substance can bear without tearing asunder, usually expressed with reference to a unit area of the cross section of the substance, as the number of pounds per square inch, or kilograms per square centimeter, necessary to produce rupture.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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