defensibility.

1. The extent to which a decision, position or action can be defended with adequate reasons or evidence.

2. The extent to which a place or position can be protected against attack.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• ethical defensibility
• defensibility of an inference

On the page

The review assessed the decision’s defensibility using the information available at the time.

An appealing outcome did not settle the defensibility of the procedure used to obtain it.

Usage notes

Primary category: analysis / argumentation / evidence. Forms: Usually uncountable; use a plural for distinct instances or types only where natural. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: evidence, argumentation, evaluation, qualification. Disciplines: reasoning, research, essay writing. Commonness: uncommon.