INSISTENCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does insistence mean? 

• INSISTENCE (noun)
  The noun INSISTENCE has 3 senses:

1. continual and persistent demands

2. the state of demanding notice or attention

3. the act of insisting on something

  Familiarity information: INSISTENCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INSISTENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Continual and persistent demands

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

insistence; insisting

Hypernyms ("insistence" is a kind of...):

demand (an urgent or peremptory request)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "insistence"):

purism (scrupulous or exaggerated insistence on purity or correctness (especially in language))

Derivation:

insist (be emphatic or resolute and refuse to budge)

insistent (repetitive and persistent)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state of demanding notice or attention

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

imperativeness; insistence; insistency; press; pressure

Context example:

the press of business matters

Hypernyms ("insistence" is a kind of...):

urgency (the state of being urgent; an earnest and insistent necessity)

Derivation:

insistent (repetitive and persistent)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of insisting on something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

insistence; insistency

Context example:

insistence on grammatical correctness is a conservative position

Hypernyms ("insistence" is a kind of...):

advocacy; protagonism (active support of an idea or cause etc.; especially the act of pleading or arguing for something)

Derivation:

insist (beg persistently and urgently)

 Context examples 

She does not wish to speak with you, and your insistence is insult.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“But what shall I be doing?” she interrupted, with that softness I knew full well to be insistence.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It is a picture, and I can see it now,—the jagged edges of the hole in the side of the cabin, through which the grey fog swirled and eddied; the empty upholstered seats, littered with all the evidences of sudden flight, such as packages, hand satchels, umbrellas, and wraps; the stout gentleman who had been reading my essay, encased in cork and canvas, the magazine still in his hand, and asking me with monotonous insistence if I thought there was any danger; the red-faced man, stumping gallantly around on his artificial legs and buckling life-preservers on all comers; and finally, the screaming bedlam of women.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)