tenuous

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: ten=u=ous

CIDE DICTIONARY

tenuous, a. [L. tenuis thin. See Thin, and cf. Tenuis.].

•  Thin; slender; small; minute.  [1913 Webster]
•  Rare; subtile; not dense; -- said of fluids.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

tenuous, adj.
1 slight, of little substance (tenuous connection).
2 (of a distinction etc.) oversubtle.
3 thin, slender, small.
4 rarefied.

Derivative

tenuously adv. tenuousness n.

Etymology

L tenuis

THESAURUS

tenuous

adulterated, aerial, air-built, airy, aloof, atomic, attenuate, attenuated, boyish, broken, chimerical, cloud-built, corpuscular, cut, dainty, delicate, detached, diaphanous, dilute, diluted, disconnected, discontinuous, discrete, doubtful, dreamlike, dubious, embryonic, ethereal, evanescent, fanciful, fatuitous, fatuous, feeble, fine, fine-drawn, finespun, flimsy, fragile, frail, gapped, gaseous, gauzy, germinal, girlish, gossamer, gossamery, gracile, granular, hazy, illusory, imaginary, impalpable, imperceptible, imponderable, inappreciable, incoherent, inconsistent, indiscernible, infinitesimal, insignificant, insubstantial, intangible, invisible, lacy, light, microcosmic, microscopic, misty, molecular, nebulous, negligible, nonadherent, nonadhesive, noncoherent, noncohesive, open, paltry, papery, phantomlike, rare, rarefied, reedy, shadowy, shaky, sketchy, slender, slenderish, slight, slight-made, slim, slimmish, slinky, small, spirituous, subatomic, subtile, subtle, svelte, sylphlike, thin, thin-bodied, thin-set, thin-spun, thinned, thinned-out, thinnish, threadlike, trifling, twiggy, ultramicroscopic, unadhesive, uncoherent, uncohesive, uncompact, uncompressed, unconnected, unjoined, unreal, unseeable, unsubstantial, untenacious, vague, vaporous, wasp-waisted, watered, watered-down, watery, weak, willowy, windy, wiredrawn, wispy

ROGET THESAURUS

tenuous

Rarity

N rarity, tenuity, absence of solidity, subtility, subtilty, subtlety, sponginess, compressibility, rarefaction, expansion, dilatation, inflation, subtilization, vaporization, evaporation, diffusion, gassification, ether, rare, subtile, thin, fine, tenuous, compressible, flimsy, slight, light, cavernous, spongy, rarefied, unsubstantial, uncompact, incompressed, rarefiable.