Word.ws English Dictionary

bone of contention

UK/ˈbəʊn əv kənˈtɛnʃən//ˈboʊn əv kənˈtɛnʃən/

bone of contention noun: something that continues to be disputed; something on which no agreement can be reached.

Noun

bone of contention (plural bones of contention)

  1. (idiomatic) Something that continues to be disputed; something on which no agreement can be reached.
    • It is still a bone of contention whether to go ahead with the original plan in light of the new evidence.
    • The crossing caused serious congestion with long traffic hold-ups, and had been a bone of contention between the local authorities and the railway for over eighty years. It was controlled from Fletton Road Junction Signalbox (removed at the same time) and, until a wheel was installed in 1920...1959 April, C. R. Clinker and R. A. Dane, “The Railways of Peterborough”, in Railway Magazine, page 230

bone of contention meaning in Urdu and Kannada

bone of contention in Urdu

فساد کی جڑ

bone of contention in Kannada

ವಿವಾದ ವಿಷಯ, ವ್ಯಾಜ್ಯಕಾರಣ

Examples of bone of contention in a sentence

  • The crossing caused serious congestion with long traffic hold-ups, and had been a bone of contention between the local authorities and the railway for over eighty years.1959 April, C. R. Clinker and R. A. Dane, “The Railways of Peterborough”, in Railway Magazine, page 230:
  • England's "Football Coming Home" anthem became a serious bone of contention at the World Cup - with Croatia using it as a sign of arrogance from their opponents in the build up to the semi-final.2018 November 18, Phil McNulty, “England 2 - 1 Croatia”, in BBC Sport:
  • But this relationship between who is responsible, either Network Rail or the local/road authorities, has long been a bone of contention.2026 April 1, Richard Foster, “Fenland bridge "not safe"”, in RAIL, number 1058, page 33:

Forms of bone of contention

pluralbones of contention

Origin of bone of contention

A reference to two dogs fighting over the same bone.

Questions about bone of contention

What does bone of contention mean?
Bone of contention means something that continues to be disputed; something on which no agreement can be reached.
What is bone of contention in Urdu?
Bone of contention in Urdu is فساد کی جڑ. See Bone of contention meaning in Urdu.
How do you use bone of contention in a sentence?
The crossing caused serious congestion with long traffic hold-ups, and had been a bone of contention between the local authorities and the railway for over eighty years.
What part of speech is bone of contention?
Bone of contention is a noun.
How do you pronounce bone of contention?
Bone of contention is pronounced /ˈbəʊn əv kənˈtɛnʃən/ (UK).
What is the plural of bone of contention?
The plural of bone of contention is bones of contention.

Words near bone of contention in the dictionary

  1. bone meals
  2. bone mineral densities
  3. bone mineral density
  4. bone morphogenetic protein
  5. bone morphogenetic proteins
  6. bone of contention
  7. bone oil
  8. bone out
  9. bone pointing
  10. bone ridge
  11. bone ridges

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bone of contention (page history and authors); bone of contention (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bone of contention (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bone of contention.ogg, en-au-bone of contention.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bone of contention.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bone_of_contention. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.