refractory

adjective/rɪˈfræktəri/

Frequency rank: #14,656 of 20,003 in the WORDED list (wordfreq data)

Meaning

resistant to treatment or cure; stubbornly difficult to manage or change.

Illustration for the English word “refractory”

Example sentence

The patient's condition was described as refractory because it did not respond to any of the standard treatments.

Synonyms & related words

More words in ranks 14,601–14,700