obstinance

Obstinance is a characteristic of being impossibly stubborn. Like a bull that won’t budge, obstinance keeps people from going with the flow. If everybody wants to watch a movie you dislike, don’t let your obstinance ruin family movie night.

When someone is obstinate, they are strong-willed and determined, so you can use the word obstinance to describe this quality. There’s the obstinance of a two-year old who refuses to go to bed, or the obstinance of someone who believes that aliens built the pyramids and can’t be convinced otherwise. The Latin root of obstinance is obstinare, "stand stubbornly."

Definitions of obstinance

1. noun

   resolute adherence to your own ideas or desires
   synonyms: bullheadedness, obstinacy, pigheadedness, self-will, stubbornness

   types:

   impenitence, impenitency

   the trait of refusing to repent

   intransigence, intransigency

   the trait of being intransigent; stubbornly refusing to compromise

   type of:

   firmness, firmness of purpose, resoluteness, resolution, resolve

   the trait of being resolute
2. noun

   the trait of being difficult to handle or overcome
   synonyms: mulishness, obstinacy, stubbornness

   type of:

   intractability, intractableness

   the trait of being hard to influence or control