Word.ws English Dictionary

contentious

/kənˈtɛn.ʃəs/

contentious adjective: marked by heated arguments or controversy.

Adjective

contentious (comparative more contentious, superlative most contentious)

  1. Marked by heated arguments or controversy.
    • Ukraine, however, will complain long and hard about a contentious second-half incident when Marko Devic's shot clearly crossed the line before it was scrambled away by John Terry, only for the officials to remain unmoved.2012 June 19, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport
    • His essay[…] is likely to draw a furious response from across the party, where [Tony] Blair’s legacy remains highly contentious.2026 May 26, Jessica Elgot, “Tony Blair tells Starmer and rivals: abandon net zero and move closer to Trump”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  2. Given to struggling with others out of jealousy or discord.
    • She was not a contentious person as the Other had been; she did not argue and contradict everything I said.2020, Susanna Clarke, Piranesi, Bloomsbury, page 212

contentious meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

contentious in Tamil

சர்ச்சைக்குரிய, சர்ச்சையைத் தூண்டும், அடிக்கடி பிறருடன் சண்டையிடும், வாய்ச் சண்டையைத் தூண்டும், வாதத்திற்குரிய

contentious in Urdu

جھگڑالو, نزاعی, تکراری, متنازع فيہ

contentious in Bengali

বিতর্কিত, ঝগড়াটে

contentious in Malayalam

disputable, controversial, debatable
തർക്കവിഷയമായ, വിവാദാസ്പദം, വിവാദപര, തർക്കിതം, വാദഗ്രസ്ത, തർക്കമുള്ള
fierce, heated, vehement
ചൂടുപിടിച്ച, ഉഗ്രമായ, തീവ്രമായ, കൊടിയ, പ്രചണ്ഡമായ, രൂക്ഷമായ
quarrelsome, confrontational, argumentative
വഴക്കാളിയായ, വഴക്കിടുന്ന സ്വഭാവമുള്ള, ഡാമര, ബഹളമുണ്ടാക്കുന്ന, വിവാദപ്രിയനായ, തർക്കിക്കുന്ന സ്വഭാവമുള്ള
More languagesFewer languages
contentious in Arabic
مُثِير لِلْجَدَل muṯīr liljadal

Examples of contentious in a sentence

  • After a contentious election, Jones succeeded Smith as president of the republic.
  • After contentious protests, gambling was illegalised by the legislature.
  • A diplomat whose approach to contentious negotiations was decidedly undercaffeinated.

All 25 example sentences with contentious

Synonyms of contentious

23 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of contentious

Forms of contentious

comparativemore contentious
superlativemost contentious

Origin of contentious

From Middle French contentieux, from Latin contentiōsus (“quarrelsome, perverse”), from contentiō (“contention”), from contendere, past participle contentus (“to contend”). Equivalent to English contention + -ous.

Words formed from contentious

Words that rhyme with contentious

Questions about contentious

What does contentious mean?
Contentious means marked by heated arguments or controversy.
What is contentious in Tamil?
Contentious in Tamil is சர்ச்சைக்குரிய, சர்ச்சையைத் தூண்டும், அடிக்கடி பிறருடன் சண்டையிடும். See Contentious meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is contentious?
Contentious is an adjective.
How do you pronounce contentious?
Contentious is pronounced /kənˈtɛn.ʃəs/.

Words near contentious in the dictionary

  1. contention
  2. contention system
  3. contention systems
  4. contentional
  5. contentions
  6. contentious
  7. contentiously
  8. contentiousness
  9. contentive
  10. contentives
  11. contentless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: contentious (page history and authors); contentious (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); contentious (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); contentious (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); contentious (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-contentious.ogg.

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