insistent

[ in-sis-tuhnt ]

adjective

1. earnest or emphatic in dwelling upon, maintaining, or demanding something; persistent; pertinacious.
2. compelling attention or notice:

   an insistent tone.

insistent

/ ɪnˈsɪstənt /

adjective

1. making continual and persistent demands
2. demanding notice or attention; compelling

   the insistent cry of a bird

Derived Forms

• inˈsistence, noun
• inˈsistently, adverb

Other Words From

• in·sistent·ly adverb
• nonin·sistent adjective
• over·in·sistent adjective
• over·in·sistent·ly adverb
• quasi-in·sistent adjective
• quasi-in·sistent·ly adverb
• super·in·sistent adjective
• super·in·sistent·ly adverb
• unin·sistent adjective
• unin·sistent·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of insistent¹

1615–25; < Latin insistent- (stem of in-sistēns ), present participle of insistere. See insist, -ent

Example Sentences

The few that remained were removed before the improvised singers’ insistent chorus.

From Washington Blade

Her insistent perception — the real action of this novel — is her greatest skill and her riskiest vulnerability.

From Washington Post

Although some of her family members are still insistent against the vaccine, Crawford said, she is holding out hope that the Delta variant might be “scaring straight at least a few folks.”

From The Daily Beast

It starts in the mouth, the initial pang of craving quite subtle and easy to ignore, but the signals get more insistent.

From Outside Online

He was insistent, however, that having professional athletes wearing their product was essential to a running shoe company’s credibility.

From Outside Online

The drumbeat and synth bass are as insistent as they are ominous.

From The Daily Beast

But Hollande was “insistent,” she writes, and “his strength of persuasion was nuclear.”

From The Daily Beast

My collaborator, Darcy Evans, and I are very insistent on calling Stealing Sam a “one-person play” and not a solo show.

From The Daily Beast

This great healing event for veterans has been pushed aside by a few ATV advocates insistent on illegally riding their silly toys.

From The Daily Beast

I want her to grow up to feel confident and powerful about herself and insistent about the world around her.

From The Daily Beast

And he was so infernally insistent about it, that she was forced to pull up and get away from the post in self-defense.

From Project Gutenberg

The music grew strange and fantastic—turbulent, insistent, plaintive and soft with entreaty.

From Project Gutenberg

Even her violent outburst of temper had not stilled the insistent voice which in reiteration never wearied.

From Project Gutenberg

The incident, however, gave Darry a chance to break away from the insistent Belle.

From Project Gutenberg

Therefore is there, in me, at least, an insistent whisper for ancestral and long denied rights.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• assertive
• dire
• emphatic
• forceful
• incessant
• persistent
• pressing
• resolute
• unrelenting
• urgent