MEANING
1. To state or maintain a claim firmly, especially when it is doubted or opposed.
2. To demand that something happen or that a condition be met, despite resistance.
Use it for
describing a speaker holding to a disputed account; distinguishing firmness from evidential support; showing a position maintained without conceding an objectionSeparates firm assertion from a demand for action, and makes clear that forceful repetition is not evidence. Writing functions: Argumentation, Qualification / Uncertainty.
Words that belong together
- insist that something is true
- continue to insist
- insist on the point
On the page
The witness insisted that the door had been open, though the photograph appeared to show otherwise.
The author insists on the distinction without explaining why it matters to the outcome.
The reviewers insisted that the missing cases be included in the analysis.
She insisted on reading the letter herself before anyone summarized it.
Word forms
- Base
- insist
- Past tense
- insisted
- Past participle
- insisted
- Present participle
- insisting
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- insist
- Present continuous
- am/is/are insisting
- Present perfect
- have/has insisted
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been insisting
- Past
- insisted
- Past continuous
- was/were insisting
- Past perfect
- had insisted
- Past perfect continuous
- had been insisting
- Future
- will insist
- Future continuous
- will be insisting
- Future perfect
- will have insisted
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been insisting
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Normally intransitive: insists, insisted, insisted, insisting; future will insist. Insist that a claim is true; insist on a noun or -ing form; insist that someone do something. Register: neutral. Commonness: common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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