obstinate
adjective
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English has no shortage of words to describe stubbornness, and obstinate is one you might want to latch onto. It suggests an unreasonable persistence and is often used negatively to describe someone who is unwilling to change course or to give up a belief or plan. Animals can be obstinate, too—for instance, say, a beloved pet cat that refuses to get out of your easy chair when you want to sit down. Such an example makes a lot of sense with regard to obstinate’s history, too: the word traces back to a combination of the Latin prefix ob-, meaning “in the way,” and a word related to stare, meaning "to stand." But if you’re adamant about describing Whiskers’ stubborn behavior in more faunal terms, allow us to suggest bullheaded, dogged, or mulish.
Synonyms
- adamant
- adamantine
- bullheaded
- dogged
- hard
- hardened
- hardheaded
- hard-nosed
- headstrong
- immovable
- implacable
- inconvincible
- inflexible
- intransigent
- mulish
- obdurate
- opinionated
- ossified
- pat
- pertinacious
- perverse
- pigheaded
- self-opinionated
- self-willed
- stiff-necked
- stubborn
- unbending
- uncompromising
- unrelenting
- unyielding
- willful
- wilful
Examples of obstinate in a Sentence
Matt Bai, Newsweek, 5 Feb. 2001
With The New York Times calling Klein "a weak nominee" and editorializing that the administration should withdraw him, and with his opponents obstinate and apparently committed, he seemed for a moment to be in serious trouble.
—John Heilemann, Wired, November 2000
What did they know of life? All they knew was how to parrot the stock phrases of their profession and to continue to be obstinate until somebody, somewhere, paid up.
—Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, 1998
When my father finished telling the story, he looked at me, then looked away. A moment of silence lodged between us, an old and obstinate silence.
—Bernard Cooper, Harper's, August 1992
his obstinate refusal to obey
My parents remain as obstinate as ever.
Rebecca Brannon / Made By History, TIME, 3 July 2024
Republicans will be obstinate in refusing to pass any bill that might bolster Democrats’ electoral prospects in November.
—Paolo Confino, Fortune, 28 Feb. 2024
Despite its favorable standing in the new government, the House of Representatives and its allies remain obstinate.
—Alexander Decina, Foreign Affairs, 29 Apr. 2016
While Australia and the European Union have both supported the idea of putting the fund in the World Bank, neither had been as obstinate as the U.S. on that point, Wu says.
—Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 20 Oct. 2023
See all Example Sentences for obstinate 
Dictionary Entries Near obstinate
Cite this Entry
“Obstinate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obstinate. Accessed 23 Nov. 2024.
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obstinate
adjective
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obstinate
adjective
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