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Persistent vs Refractory - What's the difference?

persistent | refractory | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between persistent and refractory

is that persistent is obstinately refusing to give up or let go while refractory is obstinate and unruly; strongly opposed to something.

As a noun refractory is

a material or piece of material, such as a brick, that has a very high melting point.

persistent

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Obstinately refusing to give up or let go.
  • She has had a persistent cough for weeks.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=November 10 , author=Jeremy Wilson , title= England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report , work=Telegraph citation , page= , passage=The most persistent tormentor was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored a hat-trick in last month’s corresponding fixture in Iceland. His ability to run at defences is instantly striking, but it is his clever use of possession that has persuaded some shrewd judges that he is an even better prospect than Theo Walcott.}}
  • Insistently repetitive.
  • There was a persistent knocking on the door.
  • Indefinitely continuous.
  • There have been persistent rumours for years.
  • (botany) Lasting past maturity without falling off.
  • Pine cones have persistent scales.
  • *
  • The Jubulaceae have a leaf whose lobule, usually transformed into a water-sac, is normally very narrowly attached to the stem and to the dorsal lobe; indeed some Frullania'' taxa reproduce vegetatively by dropping the dorsal lobes, but not the lobules, and ''Neohattoria has caducous lobules but persistent lobes.
  • (computing) About some data or data structures: existing after the execution of the program. Remaining in existence past the lifetime of the program that creates it.
  • Once written to a disk file the data becomes persistent and it will still be there tomorrow when we run the next program.
    This way transient value becomes persistent .
  • (mathematics) Describing a fractal process that has a positive Brown function
  • (mathematics, stochastic processes, of a state) non-transient.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    refractory

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Obstinate and unruly; strongly opposed to something.
  • *
  • * 1836 , ,
  • Mr. Weller knocked at the door, and after a pretty long interval—occupied by the party without, in whistling a tune, and by the party within, in persuading a refractory flat candle to allow itself to be lighted
  • Not affected by great heat.
  • * '>citation
  • (medicine) Difficult to treat.
  • * 1949 , Albert Fields and John Hoesley, " Neck and Shoulder Pain", Calif. Med. , 70(6):478–482.,
  • Many of the vague and refractory cases of neck and shoulder pain and of migraine may be due to cervical disc disease.
  • * 1990 , H. A. Ring et al'', " Vigabatrin: rational treatment for chronic epilepsy", ''J. Neurol. Neurosurg.Psychiatry , 53(12):1051–1055,
  • In 33 adult patients with long standing refractory epilepsy on treatment with one or two standard anti-convulsant drugs,
  • (biology) Incapable of registering a reaction or stimulus.
  • * 1959 , Nobusada Ishiko and Werner R. Loewenstein, " Electrical output of a receptor membrane]", [[w:Science (journal), Science] , 1959, 130:1405-6,
  • The production of a generator potential leaves a refractory state in the receptor membrane
  • * 1970 , S.S. Barold et al'', " Chest wall stimulation in evaluation of patients with implanted ventricular-inhibited demand pacemakers", ''Br. Heart J. , 32(6):783–789,
  • The delineates the pacemaker refractory period after the emission of a pacing stimulus and after the sensing of a spontaneous beat.

    Synonyms

    * (obstinate) contrary (inanimates), fractious

    Derived terms

    * refractorily * refractoriness * refractory period

    Noun

    (refractories)
  • A material or piece of material, such as a brick, that has a very high melting point.