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.
Its first half is filled with the optimistic insistence that dancing and love will save us all, while the second finds Madonna wrestling with bitterness and regret.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
They gave answers that showed calm, and an insistence that any change would not affect them.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
Speaking in Chicago in 1858, Lincoln argued that those who couldn’t trace their ancestry to the revolutionary generation could nonetheless look to the Declaration’s insistence that “all men are created equal.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
“His insistence on color saturation is something that really informs his work for ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ and it’s really that movie that cements his reputation as one of the masters of scenic art.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
That was why none of them slept at the house when they visited the town and the four who had stayed lived in rented rooms at Úrsula’s insistence.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
