Recalcitrant

//ɹɪˈkæl.sɪ.tɹənt// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who is recalcitrant.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Marked by a stubborn unwillingness to obey authority.

    "His nimble fancy was recalcitrant to mental discipline."

  2. 2
    Unwilling to cooperate socially.
  3. 3
    Difficult to deal with or to operate.

    "The more labile organic constituents of complex dissolved and particulate organic matter are commonly hydrolyzed and metabolized more rapidly than more recalcitrant organic compounds that are less accessible enzymatically."

  4. 4
    Not viable for an extended period; damaged by drying or freezing.
Adjective
  1. 1
    marked by stubborn resistance to authority wordnet
  2. 2
    stubbornly resistant to authority or control wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
defiantrefractorystubbornadamantadamantineadversarial

Example

More examples

"Dominion recriminations against the recalcitrant treaty population did not end with the Battleford executions in the fall of 1885."

Etymology

Borrowed from French récalcitrant, from Latin recalcitrāns, recalcitrantis, present participle of recalcitrō, recalcitrāre (“be disobedient, kick back [as a horse]”), from calx (“heel”), 1820s.

Related phrases

deal with

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