different between tenuous vs sheer
tenuous
English
Etymology
Irregularly formed from Latin tenuis (“thin, slight”) +? -ous. Compare tenuious.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?t?n.ju.?s/
- Rhymes: -?nju?s
Adjective
tenuous (comparative more tenuous, superlative most tenuous)
- Thin in substance or consistency.
- Synonyms: delicate, gossamer; see also Thesaurus:fragile
- Insubstantial.
- Synonyms: ethereal; see also Thesaurus:insubstantial
- July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises[1]
- Picking up eight years after The Dark Knight left off, the film finds Gotham enjoying a tenuous peace based on Harvey Dent’s moral ideals rather than the ugly truth of his demise.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
tenuous From the web:
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sheer
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /????/
- (US) IPA(key): /???/
- Rhymes: -??(?)
- Homophone: shear
Etymology 1
From Middle English shere, scheere, schere, skere, from Old English s??re; merged with Middle English schyre, schire, shire, shir, from Old English s??r (“clear, bright; brilliant, gleaming, shining, splendid, resplendent; pure”) and Middle English skyr, from Old Norse skírr (“pure, bright, clear”), both from Proto-Germanic *sk?riz (“pure, sheer”) and *skairiz, from Proto-Indo-European *s??y- (“luster, gloss, shadow”).
Cognate with Danish skær, German schier (“sheer”), Dutch schier (“almost”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (skeirs, “clear, lucid”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Albanian hir (“grace, beauty; goodwill”).
Adjective
sheer (comparative sheerer or more sheer, superlative sheerest or most sheer)
- (textiles) Very thin or transparent.
- (obsolete) Pure in composition; unmixed; unadulterated.
- c. 1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Induction, scene ii:
- If she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lying’st knave in Christendom.
- c. 1595, William Shakespeare, King Richard the Second, Act V, scene iii:
- Thou sheer, immaculate and silver fountain, / From when this stream through muddy passages / Hath held his current and defiled himself!
- c. 1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Induction, scene ii:
- (by extension) Downright; complete; pure.
- 2012, July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track
- Cycling's complex etiquette contains an unwritten rule that riders in contention for a race win should not be penalised for sheer misfortune.
- 2012, July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track
- Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.
- 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[4]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
- Perhaps as startling as the sheer toll was the devastation to some of the state’s well-known locales. Boardwalks along the beach in Seaside Heights, Belmar and other towns on the Jersey Shore were blown away. Amusement parks, arcades and restaurants all but vanished. Bridges to barrier islands buckled, preventing residents from even inspecting the damage to their property.
- 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[4]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
- Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.
Synonyms
- (very thin or transparent): diaphanous, see-through, thin
- (pure, unmixed): pure, undiluted
- (downright, complete): downright, mere (obsolete), pure, unmitigated
- (straight up and down): perpendicular, steep, vertical
Derived terms
- sheerly
- sheerness
- sheer-to-waist
Translations
Adverb
sheer (comparative more sheer, superlative most sheer)
- (archaic) Clean; quite; at once.
Translations
Noun
sheer (plural sheers)
- A sheer curtain or fabric.
Translations
Etymology 2
Perhaps from Dutch scheren (“to move aside, skim”); see also shear.
Noun
sheer (plural sheers)
- (nautical) The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.
- (nautical) An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship.
Translations
Verb
sheer (third-person singular simple present sheers, present participle sheering, simple past and past participle sheered)
- (chiefly nautical) To swerve from a course.
- (obsolete) To shear.
- So thick, our navy scarce could sheer their way
Translations
Further reading
- sheer at OneLook Dictionary Search
- Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “sheer”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
References
Anagrams
- Esher, Herse, Rhees, heers, here's, heres, herse
Burushaski
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [?e??]
Noun
sheer (plural sheerisho)
- lion
References
Sadaf Munshi (2015) , “Word Lists”, in Burushaski Language Documentation Project?[5].
Middle English
Noun
sheer
- Alternative form of shere
sheer From the web:
- what sheer means
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- what sheerness like
- what's sheer coverage
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