OBSTINACY

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Resolute adherence to your own ideas or desires

Synonyms:

bullheadedness; obstinacy; obstinance; pigheadedness; self-will; stubbornness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("obstinacy" is a kind of...):

firmness; firmness of purpose; resoluteness; resolution; resolve (the trait of being resolute)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "obstinacy"):

impenitence; impenitency (the trait of refusing to repent)

intransigence; intransigency (the trait of being intransigent; stubbornly refusing to compromise)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The trait of being difficult to handle or overcome

Synonyms:

mulishness; obstinacy; obstinance; stubbornness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("obstinacy" is a kind of...):

intractability; intractableness (the trait of being hard to influence or control)

Credits

Context examples:

I told him how I esteemed his good-nature; and said that his hair must have taken all the obstinacy out of his character, for he had none.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Would Mr. Darcy then consider the rashness of your original intentions as atoned for by your obstinacy in adhering to it?

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

For Demi inherited a trifle of his sire's firmness of character, we won't call it obstinacy, and when he made up his little mind to have or to do anything, all the king's horses and all the king's men could not change that pertinacious little mind.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He coughed to that extent, and his breath eluded all his attempts to recover it with that obstinacy, that I fully expected to see his head go down behind the counter, and his little black breeches, with the rusty little bunches of ribbons at the knees, come quivering up in a last ineffectual struggle.