as in misleading
formal
not capable of being defended against attack or criticism; not tenable
an untenable argument The theory is untenable.
Related Words
Relevance
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of untenable
When Michelle’s father’s house burned down, and an extended stay with her grandmother became untenable, the family collectively decided that the best option was to place her, Jessie, and their older brother Rickey in a Florida Baptist Children’s Home.
—
Literary Hub, 10 Oct. 2025
Residents feeling the brunt of the crackdown say immigration agents are making life untenable.
—Michael Loria, USA Today, 9 Oct. 2025
Conversely, a big environmental disaster or loss of life could make the route politically untenable.
—Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 3 Oct. 2025
By the 1990s, this agreement became untenable, as some Japanese players in NPB became frustrated by their lack of negotiating power.
—Jared Bahir Browsh, The Conversation, 2 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for untenable
Literary Hub, 10 Oct. 2025
Residents feeling the brunt of the crackdown say immigration agents are making life untenable.
—Michael Loria, USA Today, 9 Oct. 2025
Conversely, a big environmental disaster or loss of life could make the route politically untenable.
—Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 3 Oct. 2025
By the 1990s, this agreement became untenable, as some Japanese players in NPB became frustrated by their lack of negotiating power.
—Jared Bahir Browsh, The Conversation, 2 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for untenable
Recent Examples of Synonyms for untenable
Adjective
-
He has been criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, including COVID-19 misinformation and promoting conspiracy theories, and affirming antisemitic, racist, and transphobic comments.—
Miranda Jeyaretnam,
Time,
28 Oct. 2025
-
Murphy said that’s misleading because many incidents never make it into official statistics.—
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten,
FOXNews.com,
28 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Relief on that levy—which stacks on top of Liberation Day tariffs—could be a boon for the Asian nation at a time when domestic demand is weak.—
Bloomberg,
Fortune,
27 Oct. 2025
-
There, interactions between streams of liquid iron generate a magnetic field one quintillion times more powerful than that of an ordinary lab magnet (but thousands of times weaker than the Sun’s).—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
The study, published on the research platform arXiv, found that once the models were allowed to vary their bets and set their own targets, irrational behavior surged — and bankruptcy became a common outcome.—
Jesus Mesa,
MSNBC Newsweek,
22 Oct. 2025
-
Poetry brings hope, not an irrational optimism or wishful thinking, but a positive orientation to the future, of what a better, healthier future would look like.—
K.J.S. “Sunny” Anand,
Time,
15 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
The letter came in response to a September argument from the CPSC that the launching of a new rule-compliant product undermined the argument that the rule was unreasonable.—
MSNBC Newsweek,
MSNBC Newsweek,
27 Oct. 2025
-
This is not unreasonable in the least.—
R. Eric Thomas,
Mercury News,
26 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Untenable.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/untenable. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share