obstinance

Other forms of obstinance

plural

obstinances·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about obstinance

What does obstinance mean?

obstinance means "the trait of being difficult to handle or overcome". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in obstinance?

obstinance has 3 syllables: ob-sti-nance. The stress falls on "ob".

What is another word for obstinance?

Close synonyms include stubbornness, obstinacy, mulishness, stubbornness, bullheadedness. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is obstinance a common word?

obstinance is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.