controvert
controvert verb: to dispute, to argue about (something).
Verb
controvert (third-person singular simple present controverts, present participle controverting, simple past and past participle controverted)
- To dispute, to argue about (something).
- To argue against (something or someone); to contradict, to deny.
- [T]hat women from their education and the present state of civilized life, are in the same condition, cannot, I think, be controverted.1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC
- To be involved or engaged in controversy; to argue.
Forms of controvert
| third-person singular present | controverts |
|---|---|
| present participle | controverting |
| past participle | controverted |
| past | controverted |
Origin of controvert
Borrowed from Medieval Latin contrōvertere, from Latin contrō- (“against”) + vertere (“to turn”).
Words formed from controvert
Questions about controvert
- What does controvert mean?
- Controvert means to dispute, to argue about (something).
- What part of speech is controvert?
- Controvert is a verb.
- What is the past tense of controvert?
- The past tense of controvert is controverted.
Words near controvert in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: controvert (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-controvert.wav.
Cite this entry: “controvert.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/controvert. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.