PERTINACITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does pertinacity mean? 

• PERTINACITY (noun)
  The noun PERTINACITY has 1 sense:

1. persistent determination

  Familiarity information: PERTINACITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PERTINACITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Persistent determination

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

doggedness; perseverance; persistence; persistency; pertinacity; tenaciousness; tenacity

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

determination; purpose (the quality of being determined to do or achieve something; firmness of purpose)

Derivation:

pertinacious (stubbornly unyielding)

 Context examples 

The pertinacity of her friend seemed more than she could bear.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

But the landlady had the pertinacity and also the cunning of her sex.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But in the end Buck’s pertinacity was rewarded; for the wolf, finding that no harm was intended, finally sniffed noses with him.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Doubtless my words surprised Henry; he at first believed them to be the wanderings of my disturbed imagination, but the pertinacity with which I continually recurred to the same subject persuaded him that my disorder indeed owed its origin to some uncommon and terrible event.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

On this occasion he seemed to think he was introduced expressly to keep Traddles at bay; and he barked at my old friend, and made short runs at his plate, with such undaunted pertinacity, that he may be said to have engrossed the conversation.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)