How to Use untenable in a Sentence

untenable

adjective
  • All the theories of the Moon's origin proposed before the Apollo Moon landings of 1969 … became untenable when the rocks returned from the Moon proved to be as old as the Earth and significantly dissimilar.
    Physics Today, January 1997
  • At worst, the bad guys win and that is simply untenable.
    Saryu Nayyar, Forbes, 8 Mar. 2023
  • And the company will need to set a price that doesn’t make that argument untenable.
    Damian Garde, STAT, 22 Dec. 2022
  • Pratt is so clearly in love with his kids that to let any suggestion to the contrary go by is untenable.
    Mickey Rapkin, Men's Health, 28 June 2022
  • As this past week has shown, the status quo in Israel-Palestine is untenable.
    Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 13 Oct. 2023
  • That untenable speed-of-life is an all-ages affliction, though.
    Chris Richards, Washington Post, 23 Feb. 2023
  • Our post-Roe land will force many more women to make these untenable choices.
    Maria Laurino, The New Republic, 29 June 2023
  • But looking that closely at the entire genome is untenable: There would be far too much data to sift through.
    WIRED, 14 Feb. 2023
  • The trend is untenable as more American schools cross the half-century mark.
    Christina Zdanowicz, CNN, 18 Sep. 2022
  • Life in the camp had already become untenable, Ms. Mataheen said.
    Hiba Yazbek, New York Times, 24 Dec. 2023
  • The fact is many of the kids on these shows are put in the untenable position of becoming the breadwinner for their family and the pressure that comes along with that.
    Christine Pelisek, Peoplemag, 11 Feb. 2024
  • The Supreme Court has placed new, and untenable burdens on the shoulders of ordinary Americans.
    Simon Lazarus, The New Republic, 3 July 2022
  • The trips run in all but the height of summer (December to early March in in southern Africa), when heat, rain, and mosquitos make the voyage untenable.
    Elizabeth Heath, Travel + Leisure, 17 Apr. 2023
  • Based on what the Big Ten schools are set to get annually with the league’s new media rights agreement makes even $42 million feel untenable.
    Josh Newman, The Salt Lake Tribune, 10 Aug. 2022
  • With pressure growing by the day and dissent spreading through the White House, Biden’s hands-off approach could soon become untenable.
    Elizabeth Robinson, NBC News, 14 Dec. 2023
  • Even getting to work, thanks to sky-high gas prices, can feel practically untenable.
    Andrew Brinker, BostonGlobe.com, 29 June 2022
  • Harlan, after all, had been a staunch and vocal advocate of the idea that the Pac-12 would carry on, saying at the league’s Media Day that the idea of Utah being on the move was untenable.
    Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, 7 Aug. 2023
  • De León’s presence on the council has become untenable.
    Los Angeles Times, 15 Dec. 2022
  • If the cost of the drug becomes untenable, some people try to ration their insulin — a choice that can lead to hospitalization or death.
    Reynolds Lewis, NBC News, 30 Dec. 2022
  • It was accepted for a while, but years later, has now become untenable.
    Paul Tassi, Forbes, 4 Aug. 2022
  • This was never part of the job description in there, in an untenable situation.
    Staff Reports, cleveland, 11 Aug. 2023
  • The notion that a hurricane clause might be imposed on funds that firms sold to their clients as less volatile than other investments was untenable.
    Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, 27 July 2022
  • The price of that access makes maintaining third-party Reddit apps and tools untenable for the people who made them, critics argue.
    Chris Velazco, Washington Post, 14 June 2023
  • As an acting showcase, Creatures is more than admirable; as a tourism ad for Ireland, untenable.
    Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 30 Sep. 2022
  • This crime wave of dancing, begging, and sitting-while-homeless on subways is untenable.
    Dennard Dayle, The New Yorker, 9 Nov. 2022
  • Overall, this is misleading and in some cases, a boneheaded and untenable claim, see my coverage at the link here.
    Lance Eliot, Forbes, 5 Feb. 2023
  • The series acknowledges its new streaming home, Hulu, which has ushered in a new way to view TV while making the jobs of many writers and actors untenable.
    Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 22 July 2023
  • What is clear is just how much of an impact the rise of telework has had on BART’s recovery — and how untenable its financial structure now has become.
    Ricardo Cano, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 Sep. 2022
  • But waiting until spring 2023 seemed untenable as well.
    Chris Bieri, Anchorage Daily News, 17 Sep. 2022
  • For him, disrespect for the French people lay in perpetuating, at the cost of growing debt, a system that was untenable.
    Roger Cohen, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'untenable.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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