tenacious.

1. Holding firmly to a purpose, belief, or pursuit despite difficulty.

2. Clinging tightly or resisting physical separation.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• tenacious determination
• tenacious resistance

On the page

Her tenacious investigation continued after the funding ended.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / human behavior. Forms: Comparative more tenacious; superlative most tenacious when comparison is meaningful. 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: character, behavior. Commonness: moderately common.