Dictionaries › English

refractory

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈfɹæk.tə.ɹi/

The English word “refractory” has 6 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Obstinate and unruly; strongly opposed to something.
  2. Not affected by great heat.
  3. Resistant to treatment; not responding adequately to therapy.
  4. Incapable of registering a reaction or stimulus.

noun

  1. A material or piece of material, such as a brick, that has a very high melting point.
  2. A plant or factory that produces such material.

Etymology

From Latin refractārius (“obstinate”), from refrāctus, past participle of refringere (“to break up”). Originally refractary, refractarie, but reanalysed after other adjectives in -ory.

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “refractory” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.