Best Answer: It's a weak relationship. (Tenuous means having thin consistency - so it's a word with fairly negative connotations). If it's tenuous it's shaky. I wish you'd provided some idea of what kind of relationship you're talking about so I could be more specific. If you're talking about a relationship between or among people, it could come apart at any time. If your teacher said the relationship you claimed between two facts (cause and effect, for example) is tenuous, you probably didn't prove your case very strongly. Please provide context for definition questions. If your relationship is just hanging on by it's fingernails........that is a tenuous relationship. It means that the people in the relationship are on shaky terms. This may indicate that they parties don't trust each other or that the relationship is difficult.