insist

Reading level: medium

Estimated CEFR level: B1 — Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. verb be emphatic or resolute and refuse to budge
  2. verb beg persistently and urgently
  3. verb assert to be true

Etymology

Partly from Middle French insister, from Latin īnsistere; and partly from a back-formation from insistence. Compare typologically from the same PIE root Bulgarian настоявам (nastojavam), Russian наста́ивать (nastáivatʹ).

In classic literature

Synonyms

take a firm stand

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