BharatNotes Tenuous
adjectiveUsage in a UPSC answer
The government's defence of the retrospective tax rested on a tenuous reading of the statute, a chain of inference too frail to survive the scrutiny of a constitutional court.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
tenuously (adv), tenuousness (n), tenuity (n), tenuous (adj), attenuate (v)
Root
Latin tenuis = thin, slender, fine, slight; PIE root ten- = to stretch; -ous = adjectival suffix
Etymology
From Latin tenuis "thin, slender, fine, slight" (from PIE root *ten- "to stretch") + English -ous. The figurative sense "having slight importance, not substantial" is attested in English from 1817.
Memory Hook
From Latin 'tenuis' (thin) — same root that gives 'thin' a stretched, taut feel; picture a TENUOUS thread stretched so THIN it is about to snap. A 'tenuous' argument is stretched too thin to hold.
How This Word Works in UPSC Writing
Weak, slight or insubstantial, said of a link, claim or hold. It is a precise critical word for GS2 when assessing an argument or a relationship, as in a tenuous connection between a policy and its claimed outcome. Because it concedes that something exists while denying it much strength, it is more useful than a flat denial in an analytical answer.
Don’t Confuse It With
Tenuous is weak and insubstantial but present. Fragile is easily broken, which implies something more substantial that could shatter. Precarious is unstable and liable to collapse. Spurious is false altogether, a much stronger charge than tenuous.
Hindi Meaning
क्षीण (kshīn) or कमज़ोर (kamzor).
Common Questions
- What does tenuous mean?
- Weak, slight or insubstantial, said of a connection, claim or hold on something.
- How is tenuous different from spurious?
- Tenuous concedes that a link exists but says it is weak. Spurious says the link is false and does not exist at all.
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