Untenable

adj

adj ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Not able to be held or sustained, such as of an opinion or position.

    "The theory of cold fusion was untenable."

  2. 2
    Unfit for habitation.

    "[…] ceilings, staircases, all that make a house habitable had vanished in the flare of his conflagration, and since his soul could no longer dwell there, it dwelt instead, so to speak, in the pleasant garden which surrounded the untenable house."

Adjective
  1. 1
    (of theories etc.) incapable of being defended or justified wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
indefensibleaidlessbaselessdefenselessemptyexceptionable

Example

More examples

"Pacifism is an untenable ideology."

Etymology

From un- + tenable.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.