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1. Capable of being maintained in argument; rationally defensible: a tenable theory.
2. Capable of being held against assault; defensible: a tenable outpost.
3. Capable of enduring or of being tolerated: a tenable situation.

[French, from Old French, from tenir, to hold, from Latin tenēre; see ten- in Indo-European roots.]

ten′a·bil′i·ty, ten′a·ble·ness n.
ten′a·bly adv.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.tenableness - the quality of being plausible or acceptable to a reasonable person; "he questioned the tenability of my claims"
plausibility, plausibleness - apparent validity
References in periodicals archive ?
The Church of the Via Media was in the position of the Oriental communion, Rome was where she now is; and the Protestants were the Eutychians." This was his first doubt about the "tenableness of Anglicanism." (9)
It takes the first four chapters of the book for him to recount the painful struggle that began when he first heard the words that appeared in the Dublin Review and that shook his faith in the tenableness of an Anglicanism: "Securus indicat orbis terrarum," St.
It is not plausible that Frege would have omitted to consider the question of what the possibility of fictional discourse shows for the tenableness of his assertion sign.