inflexible

Borrowed from Middle French inflexible, from Latin īnflexibilis. See also in- +‎ flexible.

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈflɛksəbl̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

inflexible (comparative more inflexible, superlative most inflexible)

1. Not flexible; not capable of bending or being bent.

   Synonyms: stiff, rigid, firm, unyielding

2. Not willing to change, e.g. one's opinion or habits.
3. Not able to be changed or adapted to circumstances.
   • 2020 November 18, Howard Johnston, “The missing 'Lincs' and the sole survivor”, in Rail, page 58:

     Being so inflexible, the railway was easy prey to road competition, and the arrival of unregulated lorry transport from farm fields to town centres quickly captured all locally generated business.

• See also Thesaurus:obstinate
• unflexible

• flexible

• inflexibility
• inflexibleness
• inflexibly

• “inflexible”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “inflexible”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Borrowed from Latin īnflexibilis.

inflexible (epicene, plural inflexibles)

1. inflexible

• flexible

Borrowed from Latin īnflexibilis.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [iɱ.fləkˈsib.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [iɱ.flekˈsi.ble]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

inflexible m or f (masculine and feminine plural inflexibles)

1. inflexible

   Antonym: flexible

• inflexiblement

• inflexibilitat

• “inflexible”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “inflexible”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “inflexible” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “inflexible” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From in- +‎ flexible.

inflexible (plural inflexibles)

1. inflexible

• inflexiblement

• inflexibilité

• “inflexible”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• inflexível (reintegrationist)
• inflexíbel

Learned borrowing from Latin īnflexibilis.

• IPA^(key): /inflekˈsible/ [iɱ.flekˈs̺i.β̞lɪ]
• Rhymes: -ible
• Hyphenation: in‧fle‧xi‧ble

inflexible m or f (plural inflexibles)

1. inflexible

   Antonym: flexible

• “inflexible”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

Borrowed from Latin īnflexibilis.

• IPA^(key): /infleɡˈsible/ [ĩɱ.fleɣ̞ˈsi.β̞le]
• Rhymes: -ible
• Syllabification: in‧fle‧xi‧ble

inflexible m or f (masculine and feminine plural inflexibles)

1. inflexible

   Antonym: flexible

• “inflexible”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024