Resistant

How to spell resistant

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce resistant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does resistant mean?

1. adjectiveAble to withstand, oppose, or remain unaffected by something such as force, disease, or change.

Resistant in a sentence

• The new coating makes the surface resistant to scratches.

• Some bacteria have become resistant to common antibiotics.

Where does resistant come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb resistere, meaning 'to stand firm against' or 'to oppose', which was built from re- 'back, against' and sistere 'to take a stand, to make stand'. The present participle resistens gave the sense of something actively standing firm, and from that came the idea of a thing that withstands or repels. English took the word through Old French resistant during the late medieval period, and by the 1700s it was widely used to describe materials and people able to withstand force, disease, or change. The same sistere root underlies a whole family of English words such as 'insist', 'persist', and 'consist', all of which carry that core notion of standing. The spelling trap lies in the unstressed final syllable: it is -ant, not -ent, even though the ear cannot tell them apart.

How the word is built

• re- (against, back)
• sist (from Latin sistere: to stand firm)
• -ant (adjective suffix: tending to)