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Puny vs Tenuous - What's the difference?

puny | tenuous |

As adjectives the difference between puny and tenuous

is that puny is of inferior size, strength or significance while tenuous is thin in substance or consistency.

As a noun puny

is (obsolete) a new pupil at a school etc; a junior student.

puny

English

Noun

(punies)
  • (obsolete) A new pupil at a school etc.; a junior student.
  • (obsolete) A younger person.
  • *, II.12:
    • a law that the eldest or first borne child shall succeed and inherit all: where nothing at all is reserved for Punies , but obedience.
  • (obsolete) A beginner, a novice.
    • (Fuller)
  • (archaic) An inferior person; a subordinate.

    • Adjective

    (er)
  • Of inferior size, strength or significance.
  • * Shakespeare
    • A puny subject strikes at thy great glory.
  • * Keble
    • Breezes laugh to scorn our puny speed.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    See also

    * punny – relating to a pun ----

    tenuous

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Thin in substance or consistency.
    • The aether was thought to be of tenuous strands.
  • insubstantial
    • His argument was not convincing in the debate, considering how tenuous it was.
  • * July 18 2012 , Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises [http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-dark-knight-rises-review-batman,82624/]
    • Picking up eight years after The Dark Knight left off, the film finds Gotham enjoying a tenuous peace based on Harvey Dent’s moral ideals rather than the ugly truth of his demise.