different between strength vs tenacity

English

Etymology

From Middle English strengthe, from Old English strengþu (“strength”), from Proto-West Germanic *strangiþu (“strongness; strength”), equivalent to strong +? -th. Cognate with Dutch strengte (“strength”), German Low German Strengde, Strengte (“harshness; rigidity; strictness; severity”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /st???k?/, [st??????k?], [st?????n??]
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): [st??????k?]
• Rhymes: -???, -?n?

Noun

strength (countable and uncountable, plural strengths)

1. The quality or degree of being strong.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5,^[1]

     Our castle’s strength will laugh a siege to scorn.

   Antonym: weakness

2. The intensity of a force or power; potency.
   • 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations

     Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

3. The strongest part of something; that on which confidence or reliance is based.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalm 46.1,^[2]

     God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

   • 1649, Jeremy Taylor, The Great Examplar of Sanctity and Holy Life according to the Christian Institution, London: Francis Ash, Part 1, Section 4, Discourse 2, p. 66,^[3]

     […] certainly there is not in the world a greater strength against temptations, then is deposited in an obedient understanding […] .

4. A positive attribute.

   Antonym: weakness

5. (obsolete) An armed force, a body of troops.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act IV, Scene 3,^[4]

     Thou princely leader of our English strength,

     Never so needful on the earth of France,

   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act II, Scene 1,^[5]

     That done, dissever your united strengths,

     And part your mingled colours once again;

6. (obsolete) A strong place; a stronghold.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 7, lines 140-143,^[6]

     All like himself rebellious, by whose aid

     This inaccessible high strength, the seat

     Of Deitie supream, us dispossest,

     He trusted to have seis’d […]

Synonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

strength (third-person singular simple present strengths, present participle strengthing, simple past and past participle strengthed)

1. (obsolete) To strengthen (all senses). [12th-17th c.]

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:strengthen

English

Etymology

tenac(ious) +? -ity, from Middle French ténacité, from Latin ten?cit?s.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /t??næs.?.ti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /t??næs?ti/
• Hyphenation: tena?city

Noun

tenacity (countable and uncountable, plural tenacities)

1. The quality or state of being tenacious, or persistence of purpose; tenaciousness.
   • 2009, Jorge Cham, PHD Comics: Softball: younger and faster:

     — Our opponents may be younger, faster and less out of shape than we are, but we have something they’ll never have!

     — Tenure?

     — Tenacity!

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. (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.

Synonyms

• (state of being tenacious): tenaciousness, determination, persistency, retentiveness, stubbornness
• (quality keeping bodies together): cohesiveness
• (quality making bodies adhere): adhesiveness, viscosity

Antonyms

• (quality keeping bodies together): brittleness, fragility, mobility

Related terms

• tenacious
• tenaciously

Translations