What's the difference between inflexible and stubborn?

Inflexible


Definition:

  • (a.) Not capable of being bent; stiff; rigid; firm; unyielding.
  • (a.) Firm in will or purpose; not to be turned, changed, or altered; resolute; determined; unyieding; inexorable; stubborn.
  • (a.) Incapable of change; unalterable; immutable.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In current practice, some of the goals cannot be met; they should be considered as targets worthy of achievement, not as inflexible criteria of acceptance or rejection of methods.
  • (2) These words reflect a departure from Ankara's recent inflexibility, which led the country to freeze relations with Brussels during the Cypriot presidency of the EU in 2012.
  • (3) This results in patterns of inflexibility and weakness that can be demonstrated on a tennis-specific musculoskeletal exam, and that can be correlated with areas of increased injury occurrence.
  • (4) Perforation at the physiologically narrow sites of the esophagus is a wellknown mechanism as is the use of inflexible polyethylen tubes containing a mandrin.
  • (5) Postural instability was associated with abnormal patterns of postural responses including excessive antagonist activity and inflexibility in adapting to changing support conditions.
  • (6) It was only his inflexible determination, the quality that had made him a great general, that mastered the torments of ill-health – sleepless nights, fear of dying – to articulate his account for a devoted American audience.
  • (7) The day-to-day operation of the social security system (especially in universal credit) is crude, inflexible and too often oppressive .
  • (8) When we protect our old industries with subsidies and inflexible legislation, we risk losing all.
  • (9) Differences between groups were maintained across situations, and support the utility of conceptualizing personality disorders in terms of inflexible interpersonal styles.
  • (10) The inflexibility of the present system seems to be a major threat to the principle of regionalization.
  • (11) Wheras the guidelines may appear to be inflexible, they should not be considered as such.
  • (12) Traditional silicone prostheses have been found to be inflexible, heavy, and of poor color match when used on the limbs.
  • (13) When a mode of responding is adopted in noise, subjects are often rather inflexible and continue to use this strategy even though it is inappropriate.
  • (14) Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, said: "No individual newspaper editorial could hope to influence the outcome of Copenhagen but I hope the combined voice of 56 major papers speaking in 20 languages will remind the politicians and negotiators gathering there what is at stake and persuade them to rise above the rivalries and inflexibility that have stood in the way of a deal."
  • (15) Ipsa's guidelines on travel expenses suggest MPs should consider "value for money" and whether cheaper, inflexible tickets will end up costing more if travel arrangements change at short notice.
  • (16) We will make decisions based on real-world outcomes – not inflexible ideology,” Trump said.
  • (17) Seven dinucleoside monophosphates containing epsilonA (1,N6-ethenoadenosine) and 2'-O-methylcytidine were studied by 360-MHz proton magnetic resonance and compared with unmodified dimers and component monomers at 4, 20, 45, and 75 degrees C. These studies show that the dimers exhibit preference for the gg and g'g' conformations for the C-4'-C-5' and C-5'-O-5' bonds, respectively, and that dimerization induces an increase of the population and inflexibility of the 3'-endo conformations for the ribose ring.
  • (18) Because of its relative inflexibility, legislation cannot meet the challenge of the subtle and sensitive conflict of values under consideration, nor can it aid in the wise decision making by individuals which is required to assure optimum protection of subjects, together with the fullest effectiveness of research.
  • (19) It would be foolhardy to offer an inflexible step-care protocol for the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, given its heterogeneity and our uncertainty about its pathogenesis.
  • (20) Now researchers have developed a soft, flexible robot prototype inspired by starfish, worms and squid that overcomes some of the limitations of inflexible robots like Robbie.

Stubborn


Definition:

  • (a.) Firm as a stub or stump; stiff; unbending; unyielding; persistent; hence, unreasonably obstinate in will or opinion; not yielding to reason or persuasion; refractory; harsh; -- said of persons and things; as, stubborn wills; stubborn ore; a stubborn oak; as stubborn as a mule.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It has announced a four-stage programme of reforms that will tackle most of these stubborn and longstanding problems, including Cinderella issues such as how energy companies treat their small business customers.
  • (2) Of course there are some who are stubborn, like Robert Mugabe.
  • (3) The prime minister insisted, however, that he and other world leaders were not being stubborn over demands that the Syrian leader, President Bashar al-Assad, step down at the end of the peace process.
  • (4) It’s clear their relationship is most similar to that of a stubborn son and his long suffering mother.
  • (5) The contrast between these two worlds – one legal and flourishing, the other illegal and stubbornly disregarding of state lines – can seem baffling, yet it may have profound consequences for whether this unique experiment spreads.
  • (6) The causes of failure after acute injury include extensive local soft tissue and bony damage, severe concomitant head, chest or abdominal wounding, stubborn reliance on negative arteriograms in patients with probable arterial injury, failure to repair simultaneous venous injuries, or harvesting of a vein graft from a severely damaged extremity.
  • (7) "It was the character of David Cameron – his stubbornness, his anger and his rush towards war – which was the central cause of his defeat on Thursday night."
  • (8) Rebus, promised the Scottish author, will be "as stubborn and anarchic as ever", and will find himself in trouble with the author's latest creation, Malcolm Fox, of Edinburgh's internal affairs unit.
  • (9) A rising jobless total and an unemployment rate sticking at a stubbornly high 8% overshadowed a better than expected 27,100 fall in the claimant count in April, which compared with analysts' forecasts for a 20,000 drop.
  • (10) But the part of me that resists that, that is stubborn and wants to bulldoze things, gets in my way.
  • (11) One is the stubborn mystery of how a giant of its liberation movements, an intellectual who showed forgiveness and magnanimity years before Mandela emerged from jail, could turn into the living caricature of despotism.
  • (12) Sanctioning is no longer a last resort tactic aimed at the stubbornly workshy, say critics, but a crude way of pushing down claimant numbers and cutting back on the benefits bill.
  • (13) He was only 29 at the time, but nevertheless had that kind of stubborn certainty.
  • (14) They have a sort of stubbornness.” He later deals with hecklers at a Fifa HQ press event : “Listen, gentlemen, we are not in a bazaar .
  • (15) Dombrovskis stubbornly refused, instead pursuing "internal devaluation", depressing wages and conducting what he says was a 17% fiscal adjustment programme (the IMF says 15%).
  • (16) They formed a stubborn line in front of Wojciech Szczesny’s goal even if the statistics showed Arsenal’s pass-completion rate went down from 89% in the first half to 66% in the second.
  • (17) This was the first time a grouping of BME senior managers crossing health and social care had met together to look at barriers to gaining top jobs, and ways of breaking through systems which stubbornly never seem to shift.
  • (18) Broadly defined, this sort of behaviour involves procrastination, stubbornness, resentment, sullenness, obstructionism, self-pity and a tendency to create chaotic situations.
  • (19) At which point – obviously – you reach the stubborn limits of the debate: from even the most supposedly imaginative Labour people as much as any Tories, such heresies would presumably be greeted with sneering derision.
  • (20) A stubborn negativity characterised the insurrection.