thick-headedness
Stubborn lack of understanding
Thick-headedness is the quality of being slow to understand or stubbornly resistant to reason.
The image is of a skull so dense that ideas can't penetrate: His thick-headedness made explaining anything exhausting.
The word carries more exasperation than clinical terms like obtuseness—it suggests the person could grasp things if they'd only try.
Slowness to understand
- densenessCrowded or stupid quality
- dullnessLack of stimulation
- dimnessInsufficient illumination
- slow-wittednessInability to think quickly
blockheadedness · doltishness · witlessness · brainlessness · simplemindedness · foolishness · ignorance · dumbness
Unyielding adherence to position
- pigheadednessStubborn refusal to yield
- mulishnessUnyielding resistance to persuasion
- bullheadednessStubborn persistence despite reason
- intransigenceRefusal to compromise
inflexibility · willfulness · hardheadedness · obduracy · doggedness · immovability · unyieldingness · perversity
obtuseness
Slowness to understand
slow-wittedness · blockheadedness · doltishness · witlessness · brainlessness · simplemindedness · foolishness · ignorance · dumbness · vacuousness
obstinacy
Unyielding adherence to position
- pigheadednessStubborn refusal to yield
- mulishnessUnyielding resistance to persuasion
- bullheadednessStubborn persistence despite reason
intransigence · inflexibility · willfulness · hardheadedness · obduracy · doggedness · immovability · unyieldingness · perversity · contrariness
- gracelessnessclumsiness, awkwardness, boorishness, rudeness, vulgarity
thick-headednessquick-wittedness
Mental speed and cleverness
sharpness · intelligence · brilliance · cleverness · astuteness
thick-headednessopen-mindedness
Acceptance of differing viewpoints
receptiveness · perceptiveness · teachability · mental flexibility · receptivity
thick, head, thicken, thicker, thickest, thickly, thickness, heads, headed