controversial
Syllables: con·tro·ver·sial/ˌkɒn.tɹəˈvɜː.ʃəl/US/ˌkɑn.tɹəˈvɝ.ʃəl/
controversial adjective: arousing or likely to arouse controversy.
Adjective
controversial (comparative more controversial, superlative most controversial)
- Arousing or likely to arouse controversy.
- Whole libraries of controversial books.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC
- MAHER: Well, whatever. I just said we shouldn't have two national anthems. We're one country. It's not a good idea. We've seen what happens in other countries where you have, you know- when you separate things out. That's never where America was. That's never where liberalism was. It was about...2021 September 16, Bill Maher, 7:52 from the start, in Bill Maher on Getting Anger from Both Sides, Our Divided Country & Norm Macdonald’s Passing, Jimmy Kimmel Live!
- Synonyms:
- hot
- Engaging in or given to controversy; disputatious, argumentative.
Noun
controversial (plural controversials)
- Someone or something (such as a matter or an argument) that is controversial.
- No fundamental doctrine was omitted. Controversials were carefully avoided. Whether any blessing attended these attempts, will be known at the last day.1864, John Price, Old Price’s Remains; Præhumous, or During Life; Comprising, with Select Patches of “Birkenhead Shore,” Various Other Articles, Scientific and Literary, Grave and Gay, London...
- Blowing like a blast of fresh astringent air into the hot-house atmosphere of these vapid languors, came news from America of a Rational Dress Campaign. Mrs. Amelia Bloomer’s conspicuous controversials were a wonderful gift to Punch, and were welcomed with enthusiasm and joyful derision by the...1961, Alison Adburgham, A Punch History of Manners and Modes, 1841–1940, London: Hutchinson & Co., page 39
controversial meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
controversial in Hindi
- arousing controversy
- विवादास्पद vivādāspad
controversial in Tamil
- வாதத்துக்கிடமான, கருத்துமாறுபட்ட, முரணான
controversial in Marathi
- वादग्रस्त
controversial in Urdu
- متنازع
More languagesFewer languages
- controversial in Bengali
- বিতর্কমূলক
- controversial in Telugu
- వివాదాస్పదమైనది, వివాదాస్పదం, వివాదాస్పదమైన
- controversial in Malayalam
- വാദവിഷയകമായ, വാദഗ്രസ്ത, തർക്കവിഷയമായ, വിവാദാസ്പദം
- controversial in Kannada
- ವಿವಾದಾತ್ಮಕ
- controversial in Punjabi
- ਵਿਵਾਦਪੂਰਨ
- controversial in Gujarati
- વિવાદાસ્પદ vivādāspad
- controversial in Odia
- ବିବାଦୀଯ଼, ବିବାଦପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ
- controversial in Sanskrit
- विवादास्पद vivādāspada, सांवादिक sāṃvādika
- controversial in Nepali
- विवादास्पद, विवादात्मक, विवादपूर्ण
- controversial in Arabic
- مُثِيرٌ لِلْجَدَل muṯīrun liljadal, مَحَل جَدَل maḥal jadal
- controversial in Indonesian
- kontroversial
Examples of controversial in a sentence
- Amelia Bloomer’s conspicuous controversials were a wonderful gift to Punch, and were welcomed with enthusiasm and joyful derision by the cartoonists […]1961, Alison Adburgham, A Punch History of Manners and Modes, 1841–1940, London: Hutchinson & Co., page 39:
- Napoleon’s a pastry / Get this under your brow / All those big wig controversials / Are all commercials now.1993, Harold Meyerson, Ernie Harburg, with Arthur Perlman, Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz? Yip Harburg, Lyricist, Ann Arbor...
- It would be interesting to know whether the leadership capacities with which the controversials are credited is a mitigating factor with respect to their risk potential.2000, J. D. Coie, K. A. Dodge, H. Coppotelli, “Dimensions and types of social status: a cross-age perspective”, in Peter K. Smith...
Synonyms of controversial
Antonyms
Forms of controversial
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more controversial |
| superlative | most controversial |
| alternative form (nonstandard) | controversional |
| Noun | |
| plural | controversials |
Origin of controversial
From Latin contrōversiālis, from contrōversia + -ālis. By surface analysis, controversy + -al.
Words formed from controversial
Questions about controversial
- What does controversial mean?
- Controversial means arousing or likely to arouse controversy.
- What is controversial in Hindi?
- Controversial in Hindi is विवादास्पद (vivādāspad). See Controversial meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use controversial in a sentence?
- Amelia Bloomer’s conspicuous controversials were a wonderful gift to Punch, and were welcomed with enthusiasm and joyful derision by the cartoonists […]
- What part of speech is controversial?
- Controversial can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce controversial?
- Controversial is pronounced /ˌkɒn.tɹəˈvɜː.ʃəl/ (UK).
Words near controversial in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: controversial (page history and authors); controversial (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); controversial (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); controversial (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); controversial (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); controversial (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); controversial (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); controversial (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); controversial (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); controversial (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); विवादास्पद (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); controversial (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-controversial.wav.
Cite this entry: “controversial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/controversial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.