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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. (Science: 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.