Skip to content
ARCHIEENGLISH
LearnPlayWordsRanking
  • Learn
  • Play
  • Words
  • Ranking
  • Mine
← Vocabulary

refractory

UK/ɹɪˈfɹæk.tə.ɹi/US/ɹɪˈfɹæk.təɹ.i/
adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,548 of 15,258mostly written

Refractory means stubbornly resisting control or treatment. A refractory child, refractory epilepsy, refractory materials.

In medicine it is precise and means not responding to the standard treatment, which is a serious classification rather than a complaint. In industry a refractory material is one that survives extreme heat, as furnace linings must.

Definitions of refractory

  1. 1adjectiverefractoryStubbornly resisting control or treatment.C2

    “The refractory mule refused to move, no matter how hard the farmer pulled.”

refractory is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin refractarius means obstinate, from refringere, to break up.

  1. Latin

    refractārius — obstinate

  2. English, today

    refractory

Built from

  • refringere · Latin — to break up

From Latin refractārius (“obstinate”), from refrāctus, past participle of refringere (“to break up”). Originally refractary, refractarie, but reanalysed after other adjectives in -ory.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

refractory in the wild

  • Many refractories are ceramics, but some such as graphite are not, and some ceramics such as clay pottery are not considered refractory.

    Refractory

  • In human sexuality, the refractory period is usually the recovery phase after orgasm during which it is physiologically impossible to have additional orgasms.

    Refractory period (sex)

  • Some sources report that females do not experience a refractory period and can thus experience an additional orgasm (or multiple orgasms) soon after the first one.

    Refractory period (sex)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.