| tenacity | 1. The quality or state of being tenacious; as, tenacity, or retentiveness, of memory; tenacity, or persistency, of purpose. 2. That quality of bodies which keeps them from parting without considerable force; cohesiveness; the effect of attraction; as distinguished from brittleness, fragility, mobility, etc. 3. That quality of bodies which makes them adhere to other bodies; adhesiveness; viscosity. 4. <physics> The greatest longitudinal stress a substance can bear without tearing asunder, usually expressed with reference to a unit area of the cross-section of the substance, as the number of pounds per square inch, or kilograms per square centimeter, necessary to produce rupture. Origin: L. Tenacitas: cf. F. Tenacite. See Tenacious. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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