recalcitrant.
Marked by a stubborn unwillingness to obey authority.
Meaning & usage
Marked by a stubborn unwillingness to obey authority.
Unwilling to cooperate socially.
Difficult to deal with or to operate.
Not viable for an extended period; damaged by drying or freezing.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from French récalcitrant, in derived from Latin recalcitrāns, recalcitrantis, present participle of recalcitrō, recalcitrāre (“be disobedient, kick back [as a horse]”), from calx (“heel”), 1820s.
A person who is recalcitrant.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from French récalcitrant, in derived from Latin recalcitrāns, recalcitrantis, present participle of recalcitrō, recalcitrāre (“be disobedient, kick back [as a horse]”), from calx (“heel”), 1820s.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.