How to Use tenuous in a Sentence

tenuous

adjective
  • The local theater has had a tenuous existence in recent years.
  • He could demonstrate only a tenuous claim to ownership.
  • He has a tenuous grasp on reality.
  • This gives him a claim (how tenuous is yet to be seen) to the throne.
    Kayleigh Roberts, Marie Claire, 16 July 2017
  • And sure enough, some of his claims are tenuous or worse.
    The Economist, 11 Jan. 2018
  • By the end of the quarter, the Bucks held a tenuous eight-point margin.
    Matt Velazquez, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 22 Apr. 2018
  • Koepka’s grip on the lead appeared tenuous at times on the back nine.
    Brian Costa, WSJ, 17 June 2018
  • Auburn held on to its tenuous lead for eight long minutes.
    Giana Han, al, 27 Nov. 2020
  • The boundaries between the therapy room and the world are tenuous.
    Sarah Darghouth, STAT, 8 Dec. 2023
  • Biden and his party have a much more tenuous grip on power.
    NBC news, 26 Apr. 2021
  • Heirs are rarely aware of the tenuous nature of their ownership.
    Lizzie Presser, ProPublica, 15 July 2019
  • This would seem to make such an approach too tenuous to maintain.
    Noah Daponte-Smith, National Review, 28 July 2017
  • The tenuous and drama-filled process that left politicos and voters alike on the edge of their seats was over.
    Christal Hayes, USA TODAY, 13 Aug. 2020
  • Most coaches who do that have a tenuous hold on their locker room at best.
    Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press, 5 Nov. 2019
  • Elflein’s handle on the left guard job seems more tenuous given his problems the last two years.
    Mark Craig, Star Tribune, 6 Aug. 2020
  • Even so, the threat of a slowing economy can make its gains seem tenuous.
    Fortune, 20 Aug. 2019
  • That support for Lukashenko is looking all the more tenuous as protests mount.
    Washington Post, 18 Aug. 2020
  • The big problem with Keep is that its future seems tenuous.
    David Pierce, The Verge, 25 Aug. 2023
  • Like, so many of these have a very, very tenuous connection.
    Katie Hafner, Scientific American, 18 Nov. 2021
  • But even this strong bond seems more tenuous in light of this week's tumultuous events.
    Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 2 Mar. 2022
  • And the whole concept rests on some tenuous assumptions.
    Kelsey Piper, Vox, 18 Dec. 2018
  • McCarthy’s hold on the speakership has been tenuous from the start.
    Erin B. Logan, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 2023
  • That split brought years of strife to this corner of the country, which only twenty years ago gave way to a tenuous peace.
    Time, Time, 26 June 2017
  • The idea, which was legally tenuous, appears not to have gotten very far.
    Emily Stewart, Vox, 21 Oct. 2018
  • The collection consists of many great stories, but the wilderness link in some of them is tenuous.
    Richard Horan, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Mar. 2023
  • The link between unemployment and wages, and wages and prices, has been more tenuous than in decades past.
    New York Times, 18 Jan. 2021
  • Wright knows how to helm a tenuous, dramatic, thrilling show.
    Evan Romano, Men's Health, 27 Jan. 2022
  • Fostering the first tenuous moments of a friendship on apps isn’t easy.
    Zari Hasan, The Cut, 28 Mar. 2018
  • The other a tenuous toe-dip into the waters where a shark attack once occurred.
    BostonGlobe.com, 15 June 2021
  • Artenstein and his team had no choice except to pursue this tenuous lead.
    Doug Bock Clark, New York Times, 17 Nov. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tenuous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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