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Definition of tenuous : 1. Lacking substance, as a tenuous argument.
2. Rare; subtile; not dense; - said of fluids.
3. Thin; slender; small; minute.

Synonyms:

minute, clarified, pure, fragile, frail, feeble, subtile, smooth, strong, beautiful, weak, comminuted, exquisite, light, delicate, flimsy, elegant, refined, unconvincing, clear, sensitive, dainty, splendid, gauzy, slight, little, nice, handsome, insubstantial, keen, sparse, excellent, sharp, svelte, small, polished

scrawny, lean, tight, skinny, thin, slender, narrow, slim, skeletal, lanky, willowy

gossamer, subtle, wispy, rare, fine

impalpable, null, spectral, empty, intangible, weightless, unreal, ethereal, chimerical, phantasmal, vacuous, illusory, inessential, apparitional, immaterial, unsubstantial, unconcrete, vacant, nonexistence, insignificance

Usage examples:

• Something began to glimmer in my mind- the vaguest, most tenuous shadow of an idea; a tantalizing, hide- and- seek phantom of a thought. - "A Woman Named Smith", Marie Conway Oemler.
• I feel a lassitude, a debility and abandonment of the will so great- I am so ready to weep for tenderness when I see a little flower, when I contemplate the ray, mysterious, tenuous, and swift, of a remote star- that it almost makes me afraid. - "Pepita Ximenez", Juan Valera.
• And it had almost no tail; it was only a gigantic, tenuous ghost, with a core of stone and magnetic iron fragments. - "Comet's Burial", Raymond Zinke Gallun.