Dictionary

recalcitrance en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ɹɪˈkæl.sɪˌtɹəns/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

In use since at least 1856 (Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, published 1985). From French récalcitrance.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The state of being recalcitrant.
   • But the prime minister’s [Benjamin Netanyahu's] recalcitrance on the subject of a future Palestinian state, long a Saudi condition, is being faulted as one of the reasons Israel is missing out on this opportunity. 2025 May 14, Dina Kraft, “As Trump visits Mideast, Netanyahu’s government is wary of surprises”, in The Christian Science Monitor:
   • Such evaluation, abstracted from historical necessity, was in Hegel's opinion a symptom of the sterile recalcitrance of Fichte and the Romantics. 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 78:

Forms

Translations (5)

pl nieposłuszność (state of being recalcitrant) · pl krnąbrność (state of being recalcitrant) · it recalcitranza (state of being recalcitrant) · sh odupiranje (state of being recalcitrant) · fr récalcitrance (state of being recalcitrant)