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  • Adj.

tenacious

tuh-NAY-shuhs

Context
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My dog Charley was tenacious or stubborn in his great effort to remove meat from a bone—he just wouldn’t stop! He chewed on that bone for hours, tenacious or determined to get every piece of meat he could. When I tried to take the bone from Charley, he kept his tenacious hold on it—he simply wouldn’t let go until he’d achieved his goal. After he finally stopped his tenacious or persistent chewing, I saw that his hard work had been a success—there was not a single bit of meat left on that bone!

Quiz: If you are tenacious, what are you?

  • You are quick to anger and often get into fights.
  • You are determined to reach the goals you’ve set.
  • You are easily convinced to change your mind.

Memory Hook
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Tenacious Tenacious D The band "Tenacious D" was named as being tenacious for its continued insistence on being loud and vulgar in each and every show.

Examples
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  • Fear had absorbed her completely and remained there, fixed, tenacious, almost corporeal, as if it were some invisible person who had made up his mind not to leave the room. — Gabriel García Márquez, Columbian writer, from _Collected Stories_ Gabriel garcía márquez, columbian writer, from _collected stories_
  • A surviving population [of Tasmanian devils] has thrived in Tasmania, a large island off the southeastern tip of Australia, but the tenacious scavengers have struggled in recent decades. — Smithsonian Magazine
  • This "Southern Operation" would seal off China from outside help, thus underwriting victory in Japan’s frustrating four-year war against Chiang Kai-shek’s feckless but tenacious Chinese army. — The Atlantic
  • The right to vote in political elections. A right long denied to women of the United States, Florida and Flagler County. A denial which ended on Aug. 26, 1920, as the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, thereby ending a 72-year-long battle waged by tenacious and trailblazing women who won the right to vote! — The Daytona Beach News-Journal

Word Ingredients
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ten have, hold
-acious inclined to, abounding in

When one is tenacious, one is “inclined to hold” onto something until it is completed.

Word Theater
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Tug of War This is one tenacious dog!
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Word Constellation
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Tenacious

Word Variants
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tenacity n persistence; determination