Untenable: meaning, example and synonyms
Untenableadj. Not able to be defended, justified, or maintained.
Example
Once new fossils showed feathers on several dinosaur species, the theory that birds evolved separately became increasingly untenable.
- Part of speech
- adjective
- Synonyms
- indefensible, unsustainable, unsound, flawed
- Antonyms
- defensible, tenable, sound, justifiable
- Memory tip
- un- ("not") + ten ("hold"): a position you can't hold.
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Check yourself: Untenable in context
Once satellite images showed the forest shrinking each year, the company's claim that its logging was sustainable became ______.
Answer: untenable. Evidence of a shrinking forest makes the claim impossible to defend. The other choices don't describe a claim that can't be defended.
With rents doubling and wages flat, the arrangement that had let artists live downtown for decades was suddenly ______.
Answer: untenable. Doubling rents with flat wages make the arrangement impossible to keep up. Incongruous, impervious and nebulous don't describe something that can't be maintained.