contest

Noun

contest (countable and uncountable, plural contests)

1. (uncountable) Controversy; debate.
   • no contest
   • Your question betrays, I suspect, a somewhat naive vision of the world as much smaller (and much more homogenized) than it could possibly be — a vision that one of my "personal" visions, as you'll find it in some of my recent science fiction, is specifically and heartedly in contest with.1986, Samuel R. Delany, Joseph Beam, “The Possibility of Possibilities”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 207

   Synonyms:

   controversy, debate, discussion

2. (uncountable) Struggle for superiority; combat.

   Synonyms:

   battle, combat, fight

3. (countable) A competition.
   • The child entered the spelling contest.

   Synonyms:

   competition, pageant

Verb

UK/kənˈtɛst/British/kənˈtɛst/

contest (third-person singular simple present contests, present participle contesting, simple past and past participle contested)

1. (intransitive) To contend.
   • I will contest for the open seat on the board.
   • Of man, who dares in pomp with Jove contest?1725, Homer, “Book IV”, in [Elijah Fenton], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   compete, contend, go in for, joust

2. (transitive) To call into question; to oppose.
   • The rival contested the dictator's re-election because of claims of voting irregularities.
   • Few philosophical aphorisms have been more frequently repeated, few more contested than this.1848, John Daniel Morell, Historical and Critical View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Century

   Synonyms:

   call into question, oppose

   Antonyms:

   support

3. (transitive) To strive earnestly to hold or maintain; to struggle to defend.
   • The troops contested every inch of ground.
4. To make a subject of litigation; to defend, as a suit; to dispute or resist, as a claim, by course of law.

   Synonyms:

   controvert