as in stubborn
sticking to an opinion, purpose, or course of action in spite of reason, arguments, or persuasion
the company's ossified management team failed to see the technological revolution that was sweeping their own industry
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Recent Examples of ossified
Franco Ordoñez, NPR, 26 Jan. 2026
This year’s awards narrative was already feeling especially ossified.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 22 Jan. 2026
The status quo—an ossified theocracy presiding over a bankrupt economy and an aggrieved populace—has already proven unsustainable.
—Ali Vaez, Time, 15 Jan. 2026
His narrators—never too distinct from the author himself—relish exploring their childhoods in the Sovietized Bulgaria of the nineteen-seventies and eighties, measuring that artificially ossified world against modern consumerist Europe.
—James Wood, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2025
Poking out of the vertical wall of a cutbank in a seasonally dry river was a vertebra – part of the backbone – and some ossified tendons.
—Paul C. Sereno, The Conversation, 24 Oct. 2025
Really late developers, who might not be fully grown until around 20 or 21, could be 25 before their apophyseal sites are fully ossified.
—Sarah Shephard, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2025
Adjective
And he's taken aim at the foreign policy apparatus, describing institutions like the NSC and State Department as having been ossified and out of touch.
—Franco Ordoñez, NPR, 26 Jan. 2026
This year’s awards narrative was already feeling especially ossified.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 22 Jan. 2026
The status quo—an ossified theocracy presiding over a bankrupt economy and an aggrieved populace—has already proven unsustainable.
—Ali Vaez, Time, 15 Jan. 2026
His narrators—never too distinct from the author himself—relish exploring their childhoods in the Sovietized Bulgaria of the nineteen-seventies and eighties, measuring that artificially ossified world against modern consumerist Europe.
—James Wood, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2025
Poking out of the vertical wall of a cutbank in a seasonally dry river was a vertebra – part of the backbone – and some ossified tendons.
—Paul C. Sereno, The Conversation, 24 Oct. 2025
Really late developers, who might not be fully grown until around 20 or 21, could be 25 before their apophyseal sites are fully ossified.
—Sarah Shephard, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ossified
Adjective
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Universal Friend was independent, resolute, and brave—qualities that we Americans often claim as uniquely ours—but also stubborn and egotistical.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
21 Jan. 2026
-
Apply a baking soda paste, or, for darker or stubborn stains, a paste of baking soda and white vinegar.—
Daley Quinn,
Southern Living,
20 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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However, Skipper was adamant that the referee mistakenly listed him as eligible, not Decker, resulting in the Lions losing 20-19 to the Cowboys.—
DeJanay Booth-Singleton,
CBS News,
22 Jan. 2026
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Some of the bill’s legislative advocates last year were adamant its motivation was concern over safety and that the public doesn't know enough about the science.—
Paul Flahive,
Austin American Statesman,
21 Jan. 2026
Verb
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This year’s World Economic Forum in Davos crystallized what many leaders have been sensing - the world is experiencing not a single inflection point, but multiple ones at once.—
Margie Warrell,
Forbes.com,
23 Jan. 2026
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That moment crystallized why Zuckerberg had hired Clegg, as a kind of Chief Geopolitics Officer, in the first place.—
Bobby Ghosh,
Time,
18 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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The greatest concern, however, is over the Ghwayran Prison in al-Hasakah, where thousands of hardened ISIS inmates are still being held.—
Omar Abdulkader,
CBS News,
20 Jan. 2026
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The Torah calls it a hardened heart.—
Rabbi Bruce D. Forman,
Sun Sentinel,
13 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The only issue is his mother Laura (Wright), a woman who has lost a child once before and is petrified of a repeat.—
Lily Ford,
HollywoodReporter,
5 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ossified.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ossified. Accessed 28 Jan. 2026.
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