Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of insistence
Explanation
Insistence is when someone persists in forcefully asking for or requiring something. A parent's insistence might be the only reason an unmotivated teenager sits down and does his homework. A store manager's insistence on selling things for the lowest prices might be the thing that keeps customers coming back, and your insistence on reading your speech first in class might get you to the front of the line. When you insist on something, you demand it — both words come from the Latin insistere, "persist, dwell upon, or stand upon," from in-, "upon," and sistere, "take a stand."
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.
City's insistence that they will clear their name will not prevent a torrid, to put it mildly, Anfield reception.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
The move had been widely anticipated and reverses his insistence he would not seek re-election, which the Slovenian initially outlined in February 2024.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
The gay-inflected camp loses steam, and I wondered about the production’s insistence on modernizing Gullen with modern technology and media, changes that become more conspicuous when consumerism takes over the town.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
But the insistence that they do brings Nixon into the room with Saddam.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
What killed alchemy was the insistence that experiments must be openly reported in publications which presented a clear account of what had happened, and they must then be replicated, preferably before independent witnesses.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
