pertinacious

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
16
Words With Friends
20
Letters
12
Pronunciation
/ˌpɜːtɪˈneɪʃəs/ (UK)
See all 2 pronunciations
/ˌpɜːtɪˈneɪʃəs/ (UK) · /pɝtn̩ˈeɪʃəs/ (US)

Definition of pertinacious

2 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Holding tenaciously to an opinion or purpose.
    “When that divine took his leave, not a little discomfited and amazed at the pertinacious obstinacy of the women, Laura repeated her embraces and arguments with tenfold fervour to Helen, who felt that there was a great deal of cogency in most of the latter.”
    “He would really have to make up his mind to care for his wife or not to care for her. What would Lady Vandeleur say to one alternative, and what would little Joscelind say to the other? That is what it was to have a pertinacious father and to be an accommodating son.”
    “For, whether they were attracted by the lantern, or by the unaccustomed smell of a white man for which they had been waiting for the last thousand years or so, I know not; but certainly we were presently attacked by tens of thousands of the most bloodthirsty, pertinacious, and huge mosquitoes that I ever saw or read of.”
See all 2 definitions

adj

  1. Holding tenaciously to an opinion or purpose.
    “When that divine took his leave, not a little discomfited and amazed at the pertinacious obstinacy of the women, Laura repeated her embraces and arguments with tenfold fervour to Helen, who felt that there was a great deal of cogency in most of the latter.”
    “He would really have to make up his mind to care for his wife or not to care for her. What would Lady Vandeleur say to one alternative, and what would little Joscelind say to the other? That is what it was to have a pertinacious father and to be an accommodating son.”
    “For, whether they were attracted by the lantern, or by the unaccustomed smell of a white man for which they had been waiting for the last thousand years or so, I know not; but certainly we were presently attacked by tens of thousands of the most bloodthirsty, pertinacious, and huge mosquitoes that I ever saw or read of.”
  2. Stubbornly resolute or tenacious.
    “[O]ne of the Dissenters, which I could, but forbear, to name appeared to Dr. Sanderson to be so bold, so troublesome, and so illogical in the dispute, as forced patient Dr. Sanderson, who was then Bishop of Lincoln, and a moderator with other Bishops, to say, with an unusual earnestness, "That he had never met with a man of more pertinacious confidence, and less abilities, in all his conversation."”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From pertinace + -ious, from Old French pertinace, from Latin pertinax, from per- (“very”) + tenax (“tenacious”).

Words you can make from pertinacious

200+ playable · top: PRECAUTIONS (15 pts)

Best play precautions 15 points

10-letter words

9 words

9-letter words

54 words

8-letter words

136 words

Find your best play with pertinacious

See every word you can make from a set of letters that includes pertinacious, or browse word lists you can mine for high-scoring plays.