How to Use obstinacy in a Sentence

obstinacy

noun
  • This seemed to me to stem not from carelessness or spite but obstinacy.
    — Literary Hub, 17 June 2025
  • López Obrador is known for his obstinacy and has taken certain pride in it at times.
    — Star Tribune, 28 Jan. 2021
  • Of course, Nile can’t pick it up, and Aggie’s obstinacy once again bites her in the ass.
    — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2025
  • For him, obstinacy was far worse than correction.
    — Shai Tubali, Big Think, 30 Sep. 2025
  • But part of it is also due to the apparent obstinacy of Sherman et al.
    — Jay Cost, National Review, 21 Mar. 2021
  • What’s worse, this back-and-forth or the obstinacy that has derailed other rivalries from picking back up?
    — Joan Niesen, SI.com, 13 Sep. 2019
  • Trump’s obstinacy—and his lawyers’ efforts to soothe that psychic pain—will likely fail to fill the gnawing void within him.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 9 Nov. 2020
  • The [local] commander was deeply impressed by my obstinacy, and wanted to help me.
    — Carolyn Harris, Smithsonian, 28 Apr. 2017
  • Seeing it as a family-unit issue — yours to engage with — might have been fine, but your husband's obstinacy ruled that out.
    — Washington Post, 20 Jan. 2022
  • Allowed themselves to get flustered by their children’s obstinacy, throwing up their hands, yelling.
    — Danielle Lindemann, The Atlantic, 13 Feb. 2022
  • Mr Sánchez got to the Moncloa palace through a mixture of obstinacy and daring, and by tacking left.
    — The Economist, 19 Sep. 2019
  • The left’s obstinacy may carry a heavy political price.
    — Editorial, Boston Herald, 7 Sep. 2025
  • Aquarian obstinacy stems from strong, righteous conviction, and it's quelled as soon as an Aquarius gets the chance to enact change.
    — Aliza Kelly Faragher, Allure, 31 July 2020
  • Aquarian obstinacy stems from strong, righteous conviction, and it's quelled as soon as an Aquarius gets the chance to enact change.
    — Aliza Kelly Faragher, Allure, 31 July 2020
  • Such, however, is humanity’s obstinacy that, so far, the second set of minds persist in carrying on with their own thoughts.
    — Katherine A. Powers, WSJ, 4 June 2021
  • Starmer’s realism—or obstinacy, depending on your point of view—had seen off an immediate challenge.
    — Sam Knight, New Yorker, 14 May 2026
  • Means, who was serving in the state legislature at the time, recalled another moment when his friend's obstinacy surfaced.
    — Amy Yurkanin, AL.com, 8 June 2017
  • The Storkels’ dark romp is a tragi-comedy about the limits of free enterprise and the obstinacy of an eccentric genius.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 16 June 2022
  • Still, misinformation has been powerful, and fear and doubt have hardened into obstinacy for many of the vaccine refusers.
    — Sarah Maslin Nir, New York Times, 24 Oct. 2021
  • There is a hardiness verging on obstinacy on display among residents who have survived the war sheltering in their basements and cellars.
    — Carlotta Gall Ivor Prickett, New York Times, 24 Oct. 2022
  • One possible explanation for the obstinacy is the fact that selling the company to his sons would require an appraisal of the company.
    — Sheelah Kolhatkar, The New Yorker, 12 Jan. 2017
  • The whole case will, in my opinion, remain immortal in the classics of crime as the supreme example of official incompetence and obstinacy.
    — Sarah Weinman, The New Republic, 14 June 2018
  • Our experiences were branded on our souls, broadening our perspective of the world and arming us with the obstinacy and mettle to pursue a meaningful life.
    — Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle, 16 July 2025
  • His obstinacy helped the island realm survive the decades-long struggle with France but worked much less well during the unpleasantness with the American colonies.
    — Washington Post, 17 Dec. 2021
  • Politics, even now, is about more than baubles and encomia, and in their obstinacy, most voters remain at least somewhat interested in the policies that each candidate brings to the feast.
    — Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 29 July 2024
  • The gaps between Kyiv and Moscow remain too explicit, and their reasons for obstinacy too drenched in sacrifice, anxiety and blood.
    — Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 28 Nov. 2025
  • Yet Scott focusses with narrow-minded obstinacy on the troubles at hand, and the movie that results feels like a true-crime TV miniseries sliced and diced to feature length.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2021
  • Now that Democrats have taken back Congress and the White House, this obstinacy is either stupid or purposefully malicious.
    — al, 13 Feb. 2021
  • We're told by a former colleague that Davis could be driven by anxiety in meetings, and the producer David Foster gets in a shot about his obstinacy on the music's nitty gritty.
    — Steven Zeitchik, latimes.com, 20 Apr. 2017
  • The natural obstinacy and rebelliousness of Israa’s teenage years are hyperaccelerated by culture clashes with both her family and the other kids around her.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 24 Jan. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'obstinacy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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