Obstinacy: meaning, example and synonyms
Obstinacyn. Stubborn refusal to change one's opinion or course of action despite persuasion.
Example
The committee's obstinacy in rejecting every revised proposal, even those meeting its own criteria, eventually drove the researchers to seek funding elsewhere.
- Part of speech
- noun
- Synonyms
- stubbornness, intransigence, inflexibility, obduracy
- Antonyms
- flexibility, compliance, docility, open-mindedness
- Memory tip
- Picture an obstinate mule: hooves planted, it will not budge.
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Check yourself: Obstinacy in context
Despite mounting evidence that the bridge design was flawed, the chief engineer clung to his plan with remarkable ______, dismissing every critic as uninformed.
Answer: obstinacy. Clinging to a plan despite evidence and critics is obstinacy. Terseness (curt brevity), synthesis (combining parts into a whole) and attrition (gradual wearing down) don't fit.
The negotiations collapsed largely because of the delegation's ______: it refused to modify even minor demands, however generous the compromises offered in return.
Answer: obstinacy. Refusing to change any demand despite generous offers is obstinacy. Synthesis (combining parts into a whole), terseness (curt brevity) and anomaly (a deviation from the norm) don't fit.