🔊 Listen to the word Intractable

in-TRAK-tuh-bul

Definition

(adjective) Hard to control, manage, or deal with; not easily relieved or cured; stubbornly resistant to change or solution.

Example

The peace talks collapsed again, stalled by the same intractable disagreements that had derailed every previous attempt.

Word Origin

From Latin intractabilis, meaning “unmanageable” — formed from in- (not) + tractabilis (manageable), which itself derives from tractare, meaning “to handle or manage.” The root tractare also gives us words like tractor, treat, and contract — all carrying the sense of handling or pulling something into order. Intractable, then, is literally that which cannot be pulled into line.