Inflexible

//ɪnˈflɛksəbl̩// adj

adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Not flexible; not capable of bending or being bent.
  2. 2
    Not willing to change, e.g. one's opinion or habits.
  3. 3
    Not able to be changed or adapted to circumstances.

    "Being so inflexible, the railway was easy prey to road competition, and the arrival of unregulated lorry transport from farm fields to town centres quickly captured all locally generated business."

Adjective
  1. 1
    resistant to being bent wordnet
  2. 2
    incapable of change wordnet
  3. 3
    not making concessions wordnet
  4. 4
    incapable of adapting or changing to meet circumstances wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
intransigentuncompromisingrigidunbendingunflexibletough

Example

More examples

"The rule is utterly inflexible."

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French inflexible, from Latin īnflexibilis. See also in- + flexible.

More for "inflexible"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.