tenacity

From tenac(ious) +‎ -ity, from Middle French ténacité, from Latin tenācitās.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /təˈnæs.ɪ.ti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /təˈnæsəti/

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• Rhymes: -æsɪti
• Hyphenation: te‧na‧ci‧ty

tenacity (countable and uncountable, plural tenacities)

1. The quality or state of being tenacious, or persistence of purpose; tenaciousness.
   • 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 211:

     Like the Cuscus of the Moluccas, the Galeopithecus feeds chiefly on leaves, and possesses a very voluminous stomach and long convoluted intestines. The brain is very small, and the animal possesses such remarkable tenacity of life, that it is exceedingly difficult to kill it by any ordinary means.

   • 2009, Jorge Cham, PHD Comics: Softball: younger and faster‎^[1]:

     — Our opponents may be younger, faster and less out of shape than we are, but we have something they’ll never have!
     — Tenure?
     — Tenacity!

2. The quality of bodies which keeps them from parting without considerable force, as distinguished from brittleness, fragility, mobility, etc.
3. The effect of this attraction, cohesiveness.
4. The quality of bodies which makes them adhere to other bodies; adhesiveness, viscosity.
5. (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.

• (state of being tenacious): tenaciousness, determination, persistency, retentiveness, stubbornness
• (quality keeping bodies together): cohesiveness
• (quality making bodies adhere): adhesiveness, viscosity

• (antonym(s) of “quality keeping bodies together”): brittleness, fragility, mobility

• tenacious
• tenaciously