tenacity
te·na·ci·ty/təˈnæsəti/noun
tenacity is spelled T-E-N-A-C-I-T-Y: 8 letters and 4 syllables (te·na·ci·ty). It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,070th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, tenacity means “The quality or state of being tenacious, or persistence of purpose; tenaciousness” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tenacity is tenacities.
How many letters and syllables are in tenacity?
| Letters | 8: T-E-N-A-C-I-T-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: te·na·ci·ty |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words; the 25,070th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is tenacity?
Tenacity appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,070th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce tenacity?
- UK /təˈnæs.ɪ.ti/
- US /təˈnæsəti/
Tenacity has 4 syllables, split te·na·ci·ty in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-tenacity.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with tenacity?
3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as tenacity from its last stressed vowel (/æsəti/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of tenacity
- tenacities plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tenacity mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The quality or state of being tenacious, or persistence of purpose; tenaciousness.
- 2
The quality of bodies which keeps them from parting without considerable force, as distinguished from brittleness, fragility, mobility, etc.
- 3
The effect of this attraction, cohesiveness.
- 4
The quality of bodies which makes them adhere to other bodies; adhesiveness, viscosity.
- 5
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Tenacity in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense quality or state of being tenacious:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | ténacité |
| German | Zähigkeit, Beharrlichkeit |
| Portuguese | tenacidade |
| Spanish | tenacidad, tesón |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does tenacity come from?
From Middle French ténacité, from Latin tenācitās (whence -acity).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).