How to Use untenable in a Sentence

untenable

adjective
  • At worst, the bad guys win and that is simply untenable.
    Saryu Nayyar, Forbes, 8 Mar. 2023
  • But all in all, life for Dowling, who died at the age of 35, was untenable.
    Eileen Kelley, sun-sentinel.com, 25 July 2021
  • Some projects pose clear and untenable risks to the environment, but this is not one of them.
    Editorial Board, Star Tribune, 20 May 2021
  • In the absence of these reforms, the status quo is untenable.
    Mona Yacoubian, Foreign Affairs, 3 Oct. 2024
  • Building upon Fever Dreams and the notion of the untenable; the tent has been flipped over and suspended.
    Vogue, 2 Aug. 2024
  • The 25th’s crossing of the Han last week made the position of North Koreans in Seoul untenable.
    Merrie Monteagudo, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Mar. 2021
  • He’s made a mess of four of his last five appearances, an untenable rate of failure.
    Childs Walker, Baltimore Sun, 10 May 2024
  • 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 all of them said the fear of deportation made working in Turkey untenable in the long term.
    New York Times, 6 May 2021
  • The low water makes many of our classic spring bays untenable for the fish because the water is too skinny.
    Jill Dutton, Field & Stream, 11 Mar. 2021
  • Adding more debt to your budget in the first half of the week can create an untenable situation.
    Tribune Content Agency, oregonlive, 1 Aug. 2021
  • How were we supposed to go on when the simple act of gathering now posed an untenable risk?
    Julie Oh, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Jan. 2022
  • Living with such a high risk of violence is clearly untenable, in the long term.
    Tara Law, Time, 3 June 2022
  • In a pre-Covid era, this kind of disruption to a household’s routine would be untenable.
    Louis Montgomery Jr., Forbes, 1 Nov. 2021
  • The congestion and strain traffic puts on our canyons is untenable and will only get worse.
    Robert Gehrke, The Salt Lake Tribune, 26 June 2021
  • The prospect of James playing for the Lakers while owning part of their archrival would also be untenable.
    Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 1 July 2024
  • 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
  • Perhaps the White House will try to fudge the issue or water down the proposal, but its basic stance is untenable and shows.
    James Freeman, WSJ, 4 Mar. 2022
  • While in the south Israel's untenable war aim is to destroy Hamas, Israel's war aim in the north was to weaken and displace Hezbollah.
    Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 27 Nov. 2024
  • In its lawsuit, TikTok said the law would force a shutdown of the app by early next year, arguing that the sale of the app is untenable before then.
    Kaia Hubbard, CBS News, 29 May 2024
  • The defense was very good in the second half of that game, too, but those types of defensive numbers are untenable if the Utes are going to keep this thing rolling.
    Josh Newman, The Salt Lake Tribune, 17 Oct. 2021
  • Well, the thought of other people talking behind her back is untenable for her.
    Marcus Jones, EW.com, 18 Mar. 2021
  • Thiensville FD alerted us that staffing was critical and the status quo is untenable.
    Eddie Morales, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 17 Mar. 2021
  • As special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Kellogg will have to navigate an increasingly untenable war between the two nations.
    Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 28 Nov. 2024
  • But with the American people’s eyes squarely on them, their current approach is increasingly untenable.
    Raja Krishnamoorthi, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2024

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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