persistent; tenacious; relentless
Describes a person or action that is stubbornly persistent, often with a negative nuance of being annoyingly insistent or not giving up.
He persistently repeated the same question.
Through tenacious pursuit, they finally caught the criminal.
He persistently repeated the same question over and over.
My boss stubbornly fixated on minor wording.
He has a relentlessly persistent nature and never backs down once he speaks his mind.
The reporter relentlessly chased after him with questions.
頑固 describes a stubborn personality trait in general, whereas 執拗 focuses on relentless, unyielding behavior in a specific situation.
執念深い adds a nuance of grudge-holding or vindictiveness, while 執拗 simply describes stubborn persistence without implying resentment.
Standard kanji spelling; the reading しつおう is rare and archaic.
Simplified spelling using よう for the second character; less common but acceptable.
The kanji 執 means 'to hold' or 'to persist', and 拗 means 'to twist' or 'to be obstinate'. Together they convey the idea of stubbornly clinging to something. The reading しつよう is the standard on'yomi; しつおう is an older, now rare reading.