How to Use recalcitrance in a Sentence

recalcitrance

noun
  • This isn’t the first time the group has displayed recalcitrance on this question.
    — Alexandra Desanctis, National Review, 15 Aug. 2019
  • There was a 20-year track record of recalcitrance, after all.
    — Frederick Reimers, Outside Online, 3 Oct. 2020
  • Trying to figure out how to deal with a man whose seems more wired for recalcitrance than responsiveness.
    — Monica Hesse, Washington Post, 11 July 2024
  • But recalcitrance among the top brass continued to thwart meaningful change.
    — Sarah A. Topol, New York Times, 20 Sep. 2024
  • Saul on the other hand, is another story, and his recalcitrance makes the show compelling for much the same reason.
    — Patrick Cooley, cleveland.com, 12 June 2017
  • A certain recalcitrance has always been part of what makes Rosalía so compelling.
    — Kelefa Sanneh, New Yorker, 7 Nov. 2025
  • But both are inadequate in the face of human denial and recalcitrance.
    — Rita D. Sherma, The Conversation, 17 Feb. 2022
  • Why is Chuck Schumer so baffled by Joe Manchin’s recalcitrance?
    — Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 18 Mar. 2022
  • After a year of attempting to drive down the pandemic, the recalcitrance is draining.
    — NBC News, 16 Apr. 2021
  • Members of the commission, meanwhile, have said his recalcitrance is an attempt to flout the body’s oversight powers.
    — Los Angeles Times, 21 Oct. 2021
  • Jack’s recalcitrance relates to his lack of faith, but there is another complication.
    — Sam Sacks, WSJ, 25 Sep. 2020
  • Yet his recalcitrance also runs the risk of costly retribution.
    — ABC News, 8 June 2026
  • Reform efforts founder in the face of bureaucratic recalcitrance.
    — Foreign Affairs, 13 Feb. 2023
  • Or does the entrenched recalcitrance of democracies—their resistance to being commanded—pose even greater dangers to them?
    — Hal Brands, Foreign Affairs, 19 Oct. 2021
  • But experts say that even in the context of general male health care recalcitrance, there may be some factors that are specific to this vaccine that are preventing more male shots in arms.
    — New York Times, 22 Apr. 2021
  • That could irk some farmers, especially those at odds with John Deere over the company’s recalcitrance over self-repairs.
    — Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 6 Jan. 2025
  • As the number of migrants rose, European ambivalence turned to recalcitrance.
    — Ian Urbina, The New Yorker, 28 Nov. 2021
  • The line is thin between resolve and recalcitrance, conviction and condescension.
    — Hannah Beech, New York Times, 14 Nov. 2020
  • There simply is no other mythological character that embodies the spirit of recalcitrance in the face of tyranny.
    — Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 12 Dec. 2022
  • Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, later broadened this recalcitrance.
    — The Economist, 10 Oct. 2019
  • So too did the recalcitrance of many banks to underwrite development of leases in this politically sensitive area.
    — Timothy Fitzgerald, National Review, 11 Jan. 2021
  • There is a pattern of recalcitrance in her play—of abusive and, occasionally, menacing reactions to officials’ calls.
    — Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 11 June 2021
  • Spicer would seem to represent another effort to highlight the unusual nature of the White House press shop's recent recalcitrance.
    — Callum Borchers, Washington Post, 23 June 2017
  • Apple’s always emerging — from a depressive fog, from some volcanic fugue, from recalcitrance, from fear, from disappointment, from being too inside herself.
    — New York Times, 28 Apr. 2026
  • Kimutai Bosek, the governor’s legal adviser, warns that such recalcitrance could prompt frustrated Kipsigis to take the law into their own hands.
    — The Economist, 21 Nov. 2019
  • The new film charts the women’s attempts to report on the escalating crimes while navigating sexism in the workplace and police recalcitrance prompted by the depth of their reporting.
    — Nathan Smith, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Mar. 2023
  • On the other hand, polygenic scores might help parents understand that a child’s lack of interest in higher education is not necessarily a sign of recalcitrance or laziness.
    — Robert Plomin, WSJ, 15 Nov. 2018
  • Whatever the recalcitrance of Cuban elders, their children and grandchildren appeared less wedded to the coercive approach that had so long failed to bring meaningful change on the island.
    — Tim Golden, ProPublica, 24 Oct. 2011
  • This recalcitrance was particularly surprising given that the 2017 fire was not the hospital’s first in recent times.
    — Tabassum Barnagarwala, Quartz, 13 Apr. 2022
  • Moreover, Trump’s recalcitrance regarding support for military action over Taiwan is broadly shared by its allies.
    — Charlie Campbell, Time, 23 Oct. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'recalcitrance.' 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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