Membean is an incredibly effective way to learn words and permanently remember them.
Learn more on how we help for
Test Prep,
Personal Learning,
or get it for your
School.
An abortive attempt or action is cut short before it is finished; hence, it is unsuccessful.
An adherent is a supporter or follower of a leader or a cause.
If you are ambivalent about something, you are uncertain whether you like it or what you should do about it.
An assiduous person works hard to ensure that something is done properly and completely.
Someone who is capricious changes their mind repeatedly or behaves in unexpected ways; a capricious series of events follows no predictable pattern.
Something that is desultory is done in a way that is unplanned, disorganized, and without direction.
When you are diligent in completing a task, you work hard or tirelessly at it until it is complete.
When you create a diversion, you cause someone to turn aside momentarily from what they are doing by distracting them.
A dour place is plain and dull—people don’t have much fun there.
If you describe a person, group, or civilization as effete, you mean it is weak, exhausted, powerless, unproductive, and/or corrupt.
Efficacy is the ability or power to produce an expected effect or result.
When people equivocate, they avoid making a clear statement; they are deliberately vague in order to avoid giving a direct answer to a question.
Something that is immutable is always the same and cannot be changed.
Someone who is impetuous does things quickly and rashly without thinking carefully first.
If you act in an impulsive fashion, you tend to do things without thinking about them beforehand in a way that is not predictable.
If someone is indefatigable, they never shows signs of getting tired.
Something that happens on an intermittent basis happens in irregular intervals, stopping and starting at unpredictable times.
An intransigent person is stubborn; thus, they refuse to change their ideas or behavior, often in a way that seems unreasonable.
Someone who is irresolute is unable to decide what to do.
A mercurial person’s mind or mood changes often, quickly, and unpredictably.
Someone is considered meticulous when they act with careful attention to detail.
A negligent person does not complete what they say they will do—they are careless or inattentive to their work.
Someone who is obdurate is stubborn, unreasonable, or uncontrollable; hence, they simply refuse to change their behavior, actions, or beliefs to fit any situation whatsoever.
An obstinate person refuses to change their mind, even when other people think they are being highly unreasonable.
If an object oscillates, it moves repeatedly from one point to another and then back again; if you oscillate between two moods or attitudes, you keep changing from one to the other.
Someone who is pertinacious is determined to continue doing something rather than giving up—even when it gets very difficult.
If someone has pluck, she or he has determination and courage.
When you procrastinate doing something, you put it off or delay doing it usually because it is something unpleasant that you’d rather not do.
A propensity is a natural tendency towards a particular behavior.
If someone watches or listens to something with rapt attention, they are so involved with it that they do not notice anything else.
Something or someone that shows resilience is able to recover quickly and easily from unpleasant, difficult, and damaging situations or events.
A restive person is not willing or able to keep still or be patient because they are bored or dissatisfied with something; consequently, they are becoming difficult to control.
A scrupulous person takes great care to do everything in an extremely honest, conscientious, and fair manner.
Someone who is sedulous works hard and performs tasks very carefully and thoroughly, not stopping their work until it is completely accomplished.
If you are steadfast, you have a firm belief in your actions or opinions and refuse to give up or change them because you are certain that you are doing the right thing.
A tentative agreement or decision is likely to have changes before it reaches its final form.
If you are unflagging while doing a task, you are untiring when working upon it and do not stop until it is finished.
If you are unrelenting in your desire to do something, you stop at nothing until you’ve done it.
A thing or person that is unremitting is persistent and enduring in what is being done.
When someone vacillates, they go back and forth about a choice or opinion, unable to make a firm decision.
Something that is volatile can change easily and vary widely.
If you waver, you cannot decide between two things because you have serious doubts about which choice is better.
Adj.
tenacious
tuh-NAY-shuhs
Context
The dog was tenacious in his persistent efforts to get all the meat off the bone. He tenaciously gnawed at it for hours, determined to get every scrap of meat he could. When his owner tried to pry the bone out of his mouth, he held on with fierce tenacity and dogged stubbornness. He only gave up his tenacious, unyielding hold on the bone when his owner offered him a ham sandwich in place of it.
Quiz:Try again!
If you are tenacious, what are you?
Tenacious D The band "Tenacious D" was named as being tenacious for its continued insistence on being loud and vulgar in each and every show.
Examples
'Similar to latex balloons, peanut butter can conform to the airways and form a tenacious seal that is difficult to dislodge or extract.'
—
WebMD
'Not only was he tenacious on the offensive and defensive ends of the court, but when he did live commentary during games, he was always funny without losing focus.
—
The Onion
An untiringly tenacious woman who once remarked that 'most men in politics are weak,' she is known to keep her promises — good or bad.
—
TIME
This 'Southern Operation' would seal off China from outside help, thus underwriting victory in Japan’s frustrating four-year war against Chiang Kai-shek’s feckless but tenacious Chinese army.
—
The Atlantic
When one is tenacious, one is “inclined to hold” onto something until it is completed.
Word Theater
Tug of War This is one tenacious dog!
The panel shows a small video clip of either the word in actual use or a scene that represents the meaning of a word. This not only breaks up the monotony of studying words but also provides another avenue to strengthen word meaning. Enjoy!
Word Constellation
Click for an interactive map of this word
Related Words
adherent ·
assiduous ·
diligent+ ·
dour ·
efficacy ·
immutable ·
indefatigable ·
intransigent ·
meticulous ·
obdurate ·
obstinate ·
pertinacious ·
pluck ·
propensity ·
rapt ·
resilience ·
scrupulous ·
sedulous ·
steadfast ·
unflagging ·
unrelenting+ ·
unremitting ·
abortive ·
ambivalent ·
capricious ·
desultory ·
diversion+ ·
effete ·
equivocate ·
impetuous ·
impulsive+ ·
intermittent+ ·
irresolute ·
mercurial ·
negligent+ ·
oscillate ·
procrastinate+ ·
restive ·
tentative ·
vacillate ·
volatile ·
waver ·
Similar sense
Opposite sense
Word Variants
tenacity
n
→
persistence; determination
The section lists important variants and alternate definitions of the headword. Knowing variants will often help you both remember and understand the word. Not all variants are listed - only the ones we think that are important for you to know.