insistent
Americanadjective
-
earnest or emphatic in dwelling upon, maintaining, or demanding something; persistent; pertinacious.
-
compelling attention or notice.
an insistent tone.
adjective
-
making continual and persistent demands
-
demanding notice or attention; compelling
the insistent cry of a bird
Other Word Forms
- insistence noun
- insistently adverb
- noninsistent adjective
- overinsistent adjective
- overinsistently adverb
- quasi-insistent adjective
- quasi-insistently adverb
- superinsistent adjective
- superinsistently adverb
- uninsistent adjective
- uninsistently adverb
Etymology
Origin of insistent
1615–25; < Latin insistent- (stem of in-sistēns ), present participle of insistere. See insist, -ent
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.
Survival has its own language—quieter than we expect, but no less insistent.
From Slate • Mar. 29, 2026
But what kind of a Jew, with my waning attachment to ritual observance and insistent questioning of Orthodox belief?
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 24, 2026
"Even when safeguards are in place, it has been proven relatively easy to bypass these if someone is insistent enough on doing so," she said.
From BBC • Feb. 26, 2026
Yet even as the coach was roundly criticized for his handling of the situation, UCLA’s players were insistent that Cronin still had their backs.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 20, 2026
“I’m not quite sure what I ought to say. He’s so very insistent about seeing Mr. de Winter.”
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
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.
