tenacious

Clinging to an object or surface; adhesive.

Adjective

  1. Clinging to an object or surface; adhesive.
  2. Unwilling to yield or give up; dogged.
  3. Holding together; cohesive.
    • The quagmiry road, trodden into tenacious paste by the long file of human beings ahead […] - 1873, Henry Morton Stanley, My Kalulu, Prince, King, and Slave:
  4. Having a good memory; retentive.

Origin

From Latin tenāx (“holding fast, clinging”), from tenēre (“to hold”), + -ious.

Forms

more tenacious most tenacious

Synonyms

clingsome sticky pigheaded steadfast coherent elephantlike memorious

Related

tenaciously tenaciousness tenacity

Derived

overtenacious untenacious