pertinacious
/pɝtn̩ˈeɪʃəs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.07 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
4
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Holding tenaciously to an opinion or purpose.
adj
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "He would really have to make up his mind to care for his wife or not to care for her. What would Lady Vandeleur say to one alternative, and what would little Joscelind say to the other? That is what it was to have a pertinacious father and to be an accommodating son."
- "For, whether they were attracted by the lantern, or by the unaccustomed smell of a white man for which they had been waiting for the last thousand years or so, I know not; but certainly we were presently attacked by tens of thousands of the most bloodthirsty, pertinacious, and huge mosquitoes that I ever saw or read of."
- "[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.""
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
- Root: pertinace, pertinax
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /pɝtn̩ˈeɪʃəs/
- British English: /ˌpɜːtɪˈneɪʃəs/
Inflected Forms
more pertinacious (comparative)
most pertinacious (superlative)