recalcitrant
/ɹɪˈkæl.sɪ.tɹənt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.55 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Marked by a stubborn unwillingness to obey authority.
noun
A person who is recalcitrant.
Example Sentences
- "His nimble fancy was recalcitrant to mental discipline."
- "There was something in her manner so reminiscent of the school teacher reprimanding a recalcitrant pupil that Mr. Snyder's sense of humor came to his rescue."
- "The incentive to this first-class performance was a 14 min. late start from Hellifield, due to a recalcitrant van door which could not be properly secured."
- "Kenya's official "Cowan Plan," named after a colonial prison administrator, decreed that recalcitrant prisoners "be manhandled to the site and forced to carry out the task.""
- "Once pregnant, women were typically kept at hard labor until until their fifth month and recalcitrant pregnant women were made to lie in trenches that accommodated their bellies so that they could be beaten without harming the unborn child."
- "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."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: recalcitrans