insistent
Americanadjective
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earnest or emphatic in dwelling upon, maintaining, or demanding something; persistent; pertinacious.
-
compelling attention or notice.
an insistent tone.
adjective
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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
The phrase is self-explanatory, but Ms. Farr is insistent, so in her reading the woman polishes silver “until it gleamed.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026
And Emery was insistent that his players had delivered a "complete" performance.
From BBC • Jan. 25, 2026
Michelle Pfeiffer’s exhausted mom, Claire, is similarly insistent, though for a far better reason.
From Salon • Dec. 3, 2025
And across the wide silence of the bay came the sound of their engines, tiny but clear, an insistent mosquito whine.
From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
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.
