importunate
Americanadjective
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urgent or persistent in solicitation, sometimes annoyingly so.
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pertinacious, as solicitations or demands.
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troublesome; annoying.
importunate demands from the children for attention.
adjective
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persistent or demanding; insistent
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rare troublesome; annoying
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of importunate
Explanation
Importunate means annoyingly persistent or relentless, like a cranky child's importunate demands for candy in line at the grocery store checkout. Importunate rhymes with unfortunate, and importunate questions, in their irritating persistence, are unfortunate indeed. Importunate restaurant patrons tend to inundate their unfortunate waiter with demands, and one student's importunate questions can keep a teacher busy through an entire class period. You'll see in importunate the Latin root port, which means "harbor." From this came importunus, "troublesome," but also "having no harbor."
Vocabulary lists containing importunate
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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"The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
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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.
The number, a duet for Victoria and Jonquil, doesn’t make importunate emotional demands and is all the more poignant for its restraint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2025
On one occasion, Thatcher was on the phone from London, berating Reagan over his importunate 1983 invasion of Grenada, when he put his hand over the receiver and said: “Gee, isn’t she marvellous!”
From The Guardian ● Apr. 28, 2019
Most important, Mr. Green is his old self: arriving anywhere he wants around the beat, gliding or leaping, importunate and reassuring.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2018
And maybe this is just me, but I preferred the Kermit/Miss Piggy relationship in its latency phase, when the importunate Piggy only occasionally bothered the reluctant frog with baby talk and kissy noises.
From Slate ● Mar. 19, 2014
Surprising how much like a small, begging child she makes me feel, simply by her scowl, her stolidity; how importunate and whiny.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
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.
