stubbornness

UK/ˈstʌbən(n)əs/US/ˈstʌbɚn(n)əs/

nounB2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,575 of 15,258leans spoken

Stubbornness is a refusal to be moved by any argument. Sheer stubbornness, out of stubbornness, admire his stubbornness.

It is a fault or a virtue depending entirely on whether the position turns out to be right — persistence and stubbornness describe the same behaviour from opposite ends. It is judged by the refusal to consider rather than by the conclusion. Note stubborn, whose origin is unknown.

Definitions of stubbornness

1nounstubbornnessA refusal to be moved by any argument.B2
“His stubbornness cost him the job; he refused to listen to anyone's advice.”

stubbornness is a quality of obstinacy.

Where it comes from

Old English
*stybbor
Middle English
stiborne
English
stubborn
English, today
stubbornness

From stubborn + -ness. stubborn comes from Middle English stiborne, stibourne, stoburn, stoburne, styburne, stiborn, of unknown origin; one hypothesis is that it may be from Old English stybbor, from Old English stybb (“a stump, stub”) + -or.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

Practise this word

stubbornness in the wild

Foolishness is the inability or failure to act following reason due to lack of judgment, stupidity, stubbornness, etc.
Foolishness
The original story is told in Mahabharat to Duryodhana to teach him about the result of stubbornness and how it can destroy life.
Madhabi
Would he, with typical Dutch stubbornness, tell him to go to hell, or would he co-operate?
The Sex Life of the Gods· M. E. Knerr

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.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

stubborn

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