Word Of The Day

recalcitrant

recalcitrant • \rih-KAL-suh-trunt\  • adjective
Recalcitrant is a formal word typically used to describe someone who stubbornly refuses to obey rules or orders. Recalcitrant can also describe something that is difficult to manage or operate.

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Examples:
“One particularly recalcitrant driver … managed to rack up 29 speeding tickets during the 10-school-day span.” — Dave Werner, The Press-Republican (Plattsburgh, New York), 20 May 2026

Did you know?
When given an order or command, a recalcitrant person (or animal) digs in their heels. They will not give an inch, so to speak, immovable in their determination to defy the rules. This makes a great deal of sense, etymologically, as recalcitrant traces back to calx, the Latin word for “heel.” (Calx is also responsible for such English words as calcaneus, “the large bone of the human heel,” and—mention this at your next pizza party—calzone.) From calx, Latin users formed first the verb calcitrare (“to kick”) and then recalcitrare (“to kick back”). In Late Latin, recalcitrare was used figuratively to mean “to be stubbornly disobedient,” leading to the English adjective we apply today to stubborn mules both human and asinine.