Recalcitrance is the quality of refusing to obey or cooperate — and refusing stubbornly, so that pressure and even punishment do not change it. It is the noun for what a recalcitrant person or group has. 'The recalcitrance of the local council delayed the project by two years.' This is a heavy, formal word. It belongs to written English — official reports, history books, academic writing, serious journalism. Nobody says it in conversation. Where an ordinary speaker would say 'they just wouldn't budge' or 'his stubbornness', a report says 'their recalcitrance'. Two things are worth noticing. First, it carries a judgement: the speaker thinks the refusal is unreasonable. A writer sympathetic to the refusers would call it 'principled resistance' instead. So the word tells you where the writer is standing. Second, it is not only used of people. Materials, machines, and problems can be described as recalcitrant, and their recalcitrance is their refusal to behave — 'the recalcitrance of the old engine'. There is a competing form, 'recalcitrancy', which means the same thing and is much rarer; you can safely ignore it, but do not be surprised by it.

頑抗、不服管教、屢勸不聽（正式書面用語）