Pertinacious
adj ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Holding tenaciously to an opinion or purpose.
"When that divine took his leave, not a little discomfited and amazed at the pertinacious obstinacy of the women, Laura repeated her embraces and arguments with tenfold fervour to Helen, who felt that there was a great deal of cogency in most of the latter."
- 2 Stubbornly resolute or tenacious.
"[O]ne of the Dissenters, which I could, but forbear, to name appeared to Dr. Sanderson to be so bold, so troublesome, and so illogical in the dispute, as forced patient Dr. Sanderson, who was then Bishop of Lincoln, and a moderator with other Bishops, to say, with an unusual earnestness, "That he had never met with a man of more pertinacious confidence, and less abilities, in all his conversation.""
- 1 stubbornly unyielding wordnet
Example
More examples"When that divine took his leave, not a little discomfited and amazed at the pertinacious obstinacy of the women, Laura repeated her embraces and arguments with tenfold fervour to Helen, who felt that there was a great deal of cogency in most of the latter."
Etymology
From pertinace + -ious, from Old French pertinace, from Latin pertinax, from per- (“very”) + tenax (“tenacious”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.