Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Difficult to manage or govern; stubborn. See Synonyms at unruly.
- adj. Difficult to mold or manipulate: intractable materials.
- adj. Difficult to alleviate, remedy, or cure: intractable pain.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Not tractable or to be drawn or guided by persuasion; uncontrollable.
- Not to be brought into the desired order or condition; unmanageable; resisting effort: as, an intractable disposition; an intractable subject for literary treatment.
- Synonyms Stubborn, Refractory, etc. (see obstinate); unruly, unmanageable, ungovernable, wilful.
Wiktionary
- adj. Not tractable or to be drawn or guided by persuasion; not easily governed, managed, or directed; uncontrollable; incurable; violent; stubborn; obstinate.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Not tractable; not easily governed, managed, or directed; indisposed to be taught, disciplined, or tamed; violent; stubborn; obstinate; refractory.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. not tractable; difficult to manage or mold
Etymologies
- From in- + tractable (Wiktionary)
Examples
“This pattern has developed into a state that conflict scholars label intractable and that mathematicians call an attractor: the Israel-Palestinian conflict has thus become an intractable attractor.”
The Huffington Post: Peter T. Coleman, PhD: The Mathematics of Middle East Conflict and Peace
“So any perception by conservatives that progressives are intractable is itself only further demonstration of THEIR absolute unwillingness to engage in anything which might, by even the most reckless stretch of the imagination, ever be mistaken for reasoned discourse or genuine political interchange.”
Think Progress » Obama bumper sticker fuels violent political road rage in Tennessee.
“The story is already stale and yet it continues to remain intractable, organizationally and professionally, for most media organizations.”
“This society does not deal well with long-term intractable problems of any kind.”
“If they last longer than a month, they are termed intractable.”
“Volcker saw the problem as "intractable" -- and perhaps sarcastically recognized the”
“Michelle, I don’t disagree that one of the things that makes the Middle East conflict so intractable is that Arabs don’t accept that the creation of Israel is an irreversible fact.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Genetic Evidence Shows Common Origins of Jews
“Something in the soothing, self-regulating music, voice and images, and the weekly check-ins by a mental health professional, makes a sizable dent on the so-called intractable symptoms of PTS.”
“I believe that Resolution 242, cited in the Oslo accords accepted by both sides, would also provide a mechanism for the resolution of the so-called intractable Jerusalem issue.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘intractable’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Dominant/Submissive
abusive, adamant, autocratic, bossy, bullheaded, bumptious, certain, cock-a-hoop, cocksure, cocky, commanding, compelling and 189 more...
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allover
reintegrate, spight, surveillant, harmonize, Colophon, workplace, bigoted, unsighted, bridgework, salutation, voltmeter, octane and 159 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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attractive distraction
tract on tract
beguilement, main side show, on tract, appetence, tract, abstract, extract, detract, contract, intractable, protract, subtract and 22 more...
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SAT words
tergiversate, cymotrichous, vigilance, wince, consternation, cower, neutralize, euphony, cacophony, misanthrope, bibliophile, kleptomania and 81 more...
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GRE Passage Words
admonish, ephemeral, ambivalence, antipathy, antithetical, countenance, deride, eclectic, enigma, ethos, expediency, impinge and 15 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1861 more...
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GRE
vacillate, prosaic, auspicious, insipid, cerbic, acerbic, pertinacious, rapacious, specious, belied, assiduous, intractable and 8 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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Week 1, Day 1
ignominy, marquee, deter, chariot, stern, perfidy, treacherous, insolent, presumptuous, banish, dubious, livid and 133 more...
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To Learn
enervate, redolent, distaff, approbation, arrogate, bonhomie, palliate, calumny, panoply, contumacious, edify, dyspeptic and 188 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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GRE vocab
martinet, churlish, polyglot, aplomb, dissembler, histrionics, prevarication, ignominy, impugn, fastidious, trenchant, perfunctory and 155 more...
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