obstinate

adjective

I don't think you'll succeed in changing his mind—he's very obstinate:

stubborn, headstrong, wilful, unyielding, inflexible, unbending, intransigent, intractable, obdurate, mulish, stubborn as a mule, pig-headed, bull-headed, self-willed, strong-minded, strong-willed, contrary, perverse, recalcitrant, refractory, uncooperative, unmanageable, cross-grained, stiff-necked, stiff, rigid, steely, iron-willed, uncompromising, implacable, relentless, unrelenting, unpersuadable, immovable, unmalleable, unshakeable, inexorable, with one's toes/feet dug in, persistent, persevering, tenacious, pertinacious, dogged, single-minded, adamant, firm, steadfast, determined;

British, informal bloody-minded, bolshie, stroppy;

North American, informal balky;

archaic froward, contumacious;

rare contrarious, indurate.

▷antonyms compliant, amenable, tractable.

choose the right word

obstinate, stubborn, headstrong, wilful

These words express a more or less exasperated reaction to someone's determination to have their own way in the face of persuasion or pressure to the contrary.

■ Someone who is obstinate resolutely refuses to heed others (he sensed obstinate refusal rather than a willingness to bargain) or, occasionally, their own self-interest (she went to the stake for an obstinate adherence to her views).

■ Someone who is stubborn is even more obstinate than someone who is obstinate. Stubborn can imply deliberate or irrational obstructiveness, rather than a mere refusal to comply with persuasion (you're not in a fit state to drive, but I assumed you'd be stubborn about it), or it can refer to an obstinacy that has nothing to do with volition (he tried to make a stubborn mule climb the gangway). Stubbornness can be seen as a good quality, however, or at least as doing no harm to anyone else (I am quite ill nowadays, but just too stubborn to give up the thrill of the rallies!).

■ Whereas obstinate and stubborn imply refusal to act in accordance with the wishes of others, headstrong says little about others but concentrates, sometimes with grudging admiration, on the determination of the person being described, who may not be actually flouting anyone's wishes but is simply ignoring or even completely unaware of them. It is typically used of girls or young women (how did one stop a person like Harriet, headstrong, independent, beholden to no one?).

■ Someone described as wilful is being condemned, often as immature, for their determination to do what they want regardless of its effects, especially on others (she was wilful, determined, exciting, and manipulative).

obstinate Oxford Dictionary of English