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Definition of "pertinacious" [per•ti•na•cious]

  • Holding tenaciously to a purpose, belief, opinion, or course of action. (adjective)
  • Stubbornly or perversely persistent. See Synonyms at obstinate. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "pertinacious" in a sentence
  • "This proposition continued to be supported with a degree of earnestness which its opponents termed pertinacious, but not a single opinion was changed."
  • ""Suspendeds, '' [FN#446] and Al-Mutalammis the" pertinacious "satirist, friend and intimate with Tarafah of the" Prize Poem. ""
  • "If a pertinacious minority can control the opinion of a majority respecting the best mode of conducting it, the majority, in order that something may be done, must conform to the views of the minority; and thus the sense of the smaller number will overrule that of the greater …."