Select the most appropriate meaning of the underlined word. At times, David behaves in a very obdurate manner to kids.

Correct — B. Obdurate means stubbornly refusing to change your mind or to be moved by argument or pity. Obstinate says the same thing in plainer English, so option (b) is the meaning.

The clue is inside the word. Latin durus means hard, and the same root gives durable, endure and duress. Someone obdurate has hardened, and will not be shifted.

Read back into the sentence, David is unyielding with the kids — not envious of them, and not warm towards them.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  envious — Envious means resentful of what someone else has. Obdurate involves no comparison with another person, only a refusal to yield.
• (c)
  amiable — Amiable means good-natured and easy to like — close to the opposite of obdurate. The phrase "a very obdurate manner to kids" is plainly not a compliment.
• (d)
  trusting — Trusting means ready to believe others. An obdurate person is harder to persuade, not easier, so trusting points the wrong way.

Obdurate is a hard-word item: the sentence gives no synonym, no contrast and no definition, so it is worth learning as a family rather than as a single word.

That family is durus, Latin for hard — durable (lasting), duration (how long something lasts), endure (to last through) and duress (compulsion). The prefix ob- adds the sense of against.

In use, obdurate describes people and their refusals: an obdurate creditor, an obdurate silence, an obdurate refusal to apologise.

Key facts

• Obdurate means stubborn and unyielding, hardened against persuasion or pity.
• It is built on Latin durus, hard, the root of durable, duration, endure and duress.
• Obstinate, stubborn, adamant and intransigent all sit in the same synonym set.

Common traps

• Guessing amiable because the sentence mentions kids and you expect a warm word.
• Mixing obdurate with obtuse, which means slow to understand rather than stubborn.
• Settling for rude or unkind, when the meaning is specifically a refusal to yield.

No directly related past PYQ was found.