renitence means the state or quality of being renitent; resistance to physical pressure or constraint. It carries an Arena rating of 1627, earned across 39 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, renitence ranks #3,009 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #3,740 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #4,675 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #5,055 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
Why “renitence” is a great word
RENITENCE — [Noun] The quality of resisting physical pressure or constraint. From Latin renitentia, from renitēns, present participle of renīteō ("to struggle or resist against"). First known use in English: 1701; compare French rénitence. Unlike resilience, which implies an elastic recovery from deformation, or obduracy, which suggests a stubborn refusal to be persuaded, renitence is the sheer, often mute fact of pushback. It is the dull, unyielding hardness of an old oak door against a shoulder, the fibrous tension of a green branch refusing to snap, and the stubborn buoyancy of a cork held under dark water—a quiet testament that to exist, for some substances and wills, is to push back.
Etymology
From Latin renitens, present participle of reniteo. First known use: 1701. Compare French rénitence.
noun
- The state or quality of being renitent; resistance to physical pressure or constraint
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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