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Literary notes about Tenuous (AI summary)

In literature, the word "tenuous" often conveys a sense of fragility or insubstantiality, whether describing physical elements, abstract concepts, or interpersonal bonds. Writers use it to evoke images of barely perceptible sounds—such as the faint vibrations of a clavichord [1]—or to suggest the delicate nature of relationships and ideas, as in social trust or political allegiances [2][3]. It also appears in more literal descriptions, painting ethereal pictures like a slim, barely visible vapor [4] or a fragile bridge spanning a deep gorge [5]. Furthermore, the term is employed to capture the ephemeral quality of thoughts or dreams, hinting at how fleeting and insubstantial these mental impressions can be [6][7]. Through these varied uses, "tenuous" enriches the narrative by emphasizing the delicate balance between presence and absence, solidity and dissolution.
  1. Caroline drifted finally into the chamber back of the dining room, and they could hear the tenuous vibrations of the clavichord.
    — from The Three Black Pennys: A Novel by Joseph Hergesheimer
  2. And the ever tenuous, ever important trust between the citizens and their rulers and among themselves was thus enhanced.
    — from After the Rain : how the West lost the East by Samuel Vaknin
  3. After a time the improbability became tenuous.
    — from The Silent Places by Stewart Edward White
  4. The tenuous vapor, too, seemed to swirl his way.
    — from The Forgotten Planet by Murray Leinster
  5. To reach this terminal—upon the West Side of the town—it was necessary to build a very high and tenuous bridge over the deep gorge of the Genesee.
    — from The Story of the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg Railroad by Edward Hungerford
  6. She seemed suddenly to have dissolved into the tenuous substance of a dream, and as he continued to gaze upon her, she faded slowly from his sight.
    — from Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
  7. " Something began to glimmer in my mind—the vaguest, most tenuous shadow of an idea; a tantalizing, hide-and-seek phantom of a thought.
    — from A Woman Named Smith by Marie Conway Oemler

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