Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The quality or state of being untenable; indefensibleness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The condition of being untenable

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The untenability of your position persists regardless of which acquired characteristic you choose as the basis for discrimination.

    ProWomanProLife » “Raising a daughter is like watering your neighbour’s garden” 2009

  • As the political forces rallied against him and prepared to vote on impeachment, in August 2008 General Kayani finally directly conveyed to his former chief the concern of his commanders about the untenability of the situation, and Musharraf realized he was left with no option.

    The Scorpion’s Tail Zahid Hussain 2010

  • The truth is, that it has been not only the Creationists but many others who began with an evolutionary position and finally realized its untenability, e.g.

    Archive 2009-06-01 2009

  • The truth is, that it has been not only the Creationists but many others who began with an evolutionary position and finally realized its untenability, e.g.

    [evolution] and its shoddy tactics 2009

  • Indeed, we might as well turn the argument around, and say that the possibility of the dispute being resolved by one participant freely coming around to the other's point of view shows the untenability of relativism.

    Paul Feyerabend Preston, John 2009

  • My question is, why do Obama partisans concede that the surge has been effective, given its political untenability over the long term.

    McCain: "Today We Know Senator Obama Was Wrong" 2009

  • A more stinging criticism by Ekklesia argues that "the Church of England, recognising the untenability of privileges it still claims as an Established Church, is now seeking to create a broader 'multi-faith establishment' where 'the same problems will be replicated across a wider and more complex arena.'"

    Archbishop of Canterbury Suggests Role for Sharia In British Legal System Howard M. Friedman 2008

  • While the dialogue's scenario, and thus this exchange, are clearly fictional, this passage is nonetheless normally taken as indicating that Zeno composed a single treatise comprising numerous arguments, cast in the form of antinomies, all purporting to demonstrate the untenability of the commonsense presumption that there are many things.

    Zeno of Elea Palmer, John 2008

  • But we won't help the Iraqis, or our troops, until we collectively grapple with the untenability of our current situation, and confront the actual choices - military, political, moral - involved in disengaging from Iraq.

    John McQuaid: Unwind the Coil of Denial on Iraq 2008

  • From this time forth, the untenability of his position might have been as apparent to Professor Owen as it was to every one else; but, so far from retracting the grave errors into which he had fallen, Professor Owen has persisted in and reiterated them; first, in a lecture delivered before the Royal Institution on the

    Essays 2007

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