tenacity

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The state or quality of being tenacious: "Social styles developed in the 19th century withstand, with sporelike tenacity, all that the present century can throw at them” ( Larry McMurty).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The property or character of being tenacious, in any sense. Specifically— Firmness of hold or of purpose; obstinacy.
2. n. Retentiveness, as of memory.
3. n. Adhesiveness; that property of matter by virtueof which things stick or adhere to others; glutinousness; stickiness.
4. n. That property of material bodies by which their parts resist an effort to force or pull them asunder; also, the measure of the resistance of bodies to tearing or crushing: opposed to brittleness or fragility. Tenacity results from the attraction of cohesion which exists between the particles of bodies, and the stronger this attraction is in any body the greater is the tenacity of the body. Tenacity is consequently different in different materials, and in the same material it varies with the state of the body in regard to temperature and other circumstances. The resistance offered to tearing is called absolute tenacity, that offered to crushing retroactive tenacity. The tenacity of wood is much greater in the direction of the length of its fibers than in the transverse direction. With regard to metals, the processes of forging and wire-drawing increase their tenacity in the longitudinal direction; and mixed metals have, in general, greater tenacity than those which are simple. See cohesion.

Wiktionary

1. n. The quality or state of being tenacious; as, tenacity, or retentiveness, of memory; tenacity, or persistency, of purpose.
2. n. The quality of bodies which keeps them from parting without considerable force; cohesiveness; the effect of attraction; – as distinguished from brittleness, fragility, mobility, etc.
3. n. The quality of bodies which makes them adhere to other bodies; adhesiveness; viscosity.
4. n. 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.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The quality or state of being tenacious.
2. n. That quality of bodies which keeps them from parting without considerable force; cohesiveness; the effect of attraction; -- as distinguished from brittleness, fragility, mobility, etc.
3. n. That quality of bodies which makes them adhere to other bodies; adhesiveness; viscosity.
4. n. (Physics) 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.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. persistent determination