insistent
Americanadjective
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earnest or emphatic in dwelling upon, maintaining, or demanding something; persistent; pertinacious.
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compelling attention or notice.
an insistent tone.
adjective
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making continual and persistent demands
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demanding notice or attention; compelling
the insistent cry of a bird
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of insistent
1615–25; < Latin insistent- (stem of in-sistēns ), present participle of insistere. See insist, -ent
Explanation
Insistent means "unwilling to let go or back down." If a salesperson is insistent, you may find it hard to walk away without buying something. Insistent shares a root with the verb insist: the Latin word insistere, which means "persist, dwell upon, stand upon." If you are insistent, you won't take "no" for an answer, dwelling on your ideas, standing up for your position. Insistent can also mean "demanding attention," like the insistent ringing of the telephone at a busy office or the insistent cries of a hungry baby.
Vocabulary lists containing insistent
Unit 1: Telling Details
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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"The Metamorphosis," Vocabulary from the novella
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tuchel, however, is insistent Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson will build the midfield platform - but there is no doubt England lacked ideas and variety for long periods.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
It was “Sirius,” a driving, insistent instrumental recorded by Britain’s Alan Parsons Project in 1982.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
And the “Laudamus Te,” with its insistent back-and-forth reiteration of the simplest consonant harmonies, sounds like a prefiguration of Virgil Thomson’s “Four Saints in Three Acts.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
And I’m wondering why, if you can make sense of the fact that he is so insistent on getting these projects done, when there doesn’t seem to be any obvious political benefit to him.
From Slate ● May 7, 2026
I snuggled my face into her neck while Mom continued to rock and hold me, still singing her quietly insistent song: No, you're not.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
