1
as in rebellious
given to resisting authority or another's control
an intractable child who deliberately does the opposite of whatever he is told
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in stubborn
given to resisting control or discipline by others
cats are by nature fairly intractable animals
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of intractable
Final Destination was among the bleakest genre developments, locking its hapless teens into intractable fates, their foe the unknowable specter of death itself.
—
Randall Colburn, EW.com, 4 Feb. 2025
Ideas By Juan Manuel Santos and Daniel Holz January 28, 2025 10:10 AM EST
Santos is the chair of The Elders, former President of Colombia, and a Nobel Peace Laureate who led complex peace negotiations, ending over 50 years of intractable civil war.
—Juan Manuel Santos, TIME, 28 Jan. 2025
For years, the Food and Drug Administration has taken up arms against clinics hawking unproven and ineffective stem cell treatments to desperate patients looking for cures of intractable diseases and conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and even erectile dysfunction.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 17 Jan. 2025
After one such outage, at their wedding, El Khoury and Abu-Rish took a vow to get to the bottom of the seemingly intractable problem.
—Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for intractable
Randall Colburn, EW.com, 4 Feb. 2025
Ideas By Juan Manuel Santos and Daniel Holz January 28, 2025 10:10 AM EST
Santos is the chair of The Elders, former President of Colombia, and a Nobel Peace Laureate who led complex peace negotiations, ending over 50 years of intractable civil war.
—Juan Manuel Santos, TIME, 28 Jan. 2025
For years, the Food and Drug Administration has taken up arms against clinics hawking unproven and ineffective stem cell treatments to desperate patients looking for cures of intractable diseases and conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and even erectile dysfunction.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 17 Jan. 2025
After one such outage, at their wedding, El Khoury and Abu-Rish took a vow to get to the bottom of the seemingly intractable problem.
—Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for intractable
Recent Examples of Synonyms for intractable
Adjective
-
Luna will meet with rebellious Uranus in a surprising trine, bringing a jolt of excitement and unexpected revelations to your love life.—
Valerie Mesa,
People.com,
14 Feb. 2025
-
The wildly rebellious press across Europe are a vibrant sign of its free speech.—
Nick Paton Walsh,
CNN,
14 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
Fiscal and monetary policy are walking a tightrope between weak real growth and stubborn inflation.—
William Pesek,
Forbes,
21 Feb. 2025
-
The financial outlook from nation’s largest retailer, which has thrived amid stubborn inflation, delivered a jolt across the retail sector.—
Anne D’Innocenzio,
Los Angeles Times,
21 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
The rebel group’s capture of swathes of the east and valuable mineral deposits has fanned fears of a wider war.—
Reuters,
CNN,
24 Feb. 2025
-
When militants led by the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham reached Damascus last December, the capital fell without a fight.—
Marwan Muasher,
Foreign Affairs,
21 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
Without this foundation, systems and processes will fail—and the resulting manual, frustrating work will become unmanageable.—
Rana Robillard,
Forbes,
21 Feb. 2025
-
Tonight, a key colleague is absent, and the job facing Floria goes from challenging to unmanageable.—
Guy Lodge,
Variety,
17 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
That’s a defiant stance for a horror movie to take.—
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
21 Feb. 2025
-
Pierce answered all of them in resounding, almost defiant, fashion.—
James Boyd,
The Athletic,
20 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
Or does so only briefly in the ambiguous ending, when Sofia throws off the last vestiges of her passivity and forces her recalcitrant mother into a reckoning with her condition.—
David Rooney,
The Hollywood Reporter,
14 Feb. 2025
-
In an interview from a factory floor in El Salvador on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued that foreign aid spending does not support U.S. aims and that USAID, the main conduit for foreign assistance, has been recalcitrant.—
ByCatherine Offord,
science.org,
5 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
On March 19, 2024, Huger was charged with a DUI and DWI on the counts of: negligently driving a vehicle in a careless and imprudent manner, endangering property, life, and person, as well as recklessly driving a vehicle in wanton and willful disregard for the safety of persons and property.—
Gabriela Silva,
TVLine,
26 Feb. 2025
-
These misguided concerns are due to a willful ignorance of how and why the city is proposing to structure the payments.—
Pat Dowell,
Chicago Tribune,
24 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
The most dramatic case study occurred this week, when Trump signed two executive orders instituting a tariff regime on goods entering the United States from Canada and Mexico in response to what the White House argues is an uncontrollable scourge of migrants and drugs coming from those countries.—
Daniel DePetris,
Chicago Tribune,
6 Feb. 2025
-
These high winds, combined with low humidity, have created a significant fire weather risk, with forecasters warning that any ignition could lead to fast-growing, uncontrollable fires.—
Hannah Parry,
Newsweek,
7 Jan. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Intractable.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/intractable. Accessed 2 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share