debate

UK/dɪˈbeɪt//dɪˈbeɪt/

debate verb: to participate in a debate; to dispute, argue, especially in a public arena.

Verb

debate (third-person singular simple present debates, present participle debating, simple past and past participle debated)

(ambitransitive, reciprocal) To participate in a debate; to dispute, argue, especially in a public arena.
- "Debate me, coward!" snarled the completely normal intellectual.
- a wise council […] that did debate this business1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)...
Synonyms:

contend, canvass
(intransitive, obsolete, reciprocal) To fight.
- Well knew they both his person, sith of late / With him in bloudie armes they rashly did debate.1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.viii
- […] wasteful Time debateth with Decay,
  To change your day of youth to sullied night1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 15
(obsolete, transitive) To engage in combat for; to strive for.
- Volunteers […] thronged to serve under his banner, and the cause of religion was debated with the same ardour in Spain as on the plains of Palestine.1838, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: American Stationers’ Company; John B....
(transitive) To consider (to oneself), to think over, to attempt to decide
- He was debating where he'd spend his holiday.

Noun

debate (countable and uncountable, plural debates)

An argument, or discussion, usually in an ordered or formal setting, often with more than two people, generally ending with a vote or other decision.
- After a four-hour debate, the committee voted to table the motion.
An informal and spirited but generally civil discussion of opposing views.
- The debate over the age of the universe is thousands of years old.
- There was a bit of a debate over who should pay for the damaged fence.
(uncountable) Discussion of opposing views.
- There has been considerable debate concerning exactly how to format these articles.
- Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis:[…]. The evolutionary precursor of photosynthesis is still under debate, and a new study sheds light. The critical component of the photosynthetic system is the “water-oxidizing complex”, made up of...2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist
A type of literary composition, taking the form of a discussion or disputation, commonly found in the vernacular medieval poetry of many European countries, as well as in medieval Latin.
(obsolete) Strife, discord.

debate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

debate in Hindi

participate in a debate: बहस करना bahas karnā, वाद-विवाद करना vād-vivād karnā, चर्चा करना carcā karnā
argument, or discussion, usually in an ordered or formal setting: वाद-विवाद vād-vivād
informal and spirited but generally civil discussion of opposing views: बिबाद bibād, बहस bahas
discussion of opposing views: वाद-विवाद vād-vivād

debate in Marathi

argument, or discussion, usually in an ordered or formal setting: विवाद vivād

debate in Urdu

argument, or discussion, usually in an ordered or formal setting: بَحْث bahs, مُباحَثَہ mubāhasa, مُناظَرَہ munāzara

More languagesFewer languages

debate in Bengali: তর্ক tork, বিতর্ক bitork, বাহাস bahaś, মোনাজেরা mōnajera
debate in Telugu: చర్చలలో పాల్గొను carcalalō pālgonu, ప్రత్యేక చర్చ pratyēka carca, చర్చలు carcalu, విమర్శించు vimarśiñcu
debate in Malayalam: വാക്പയറ്റ്, വിവാദം, ചർച്ച, തർക്കം
debate in Kannada: ಚರ್ಚೆ carce
debate in Gujarati: ચર્ચા
debate in Odia: ବିତର୍କ, ବିତର୍କ କରିବା
debate in Nepali: बहस, बहस गर्न, बहस गर्ने
debate in Pashto: بحث کول báhəs kawə́l
debate in Arabic: مُنَاظَرَة munāẓara, مُنَاقَشَة munāqaša
debate in Malay: debat, perbahasan, bahas
debate in Indonesian: debat
debate in Persian: بحث کردن
debate in Thai: โต้วาที dtôo-waa-tii, การโต้วาที gaan-dtôo-waa-tii
debate in Vietnamese: tranh luận, bình luận, thảo luận

Examples of debate in a sentence

Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 25:9:
And, as their ubiquity spreads, so too does the debate around whether we should allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use.2013 July 26, Leo Hickman, “How algorithms rule the world”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 26:
The evolutionary precursor of photosynthesis is still under debate, and a new study sheds light.2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist:

All 40 example sentences with debate

Synonyms of debate

Forms of debate

Verb
third-person singular present	debates
present participle	debating
past participle	debated
past	debated
Noun
plural	debates

Past tense of debate: debated

Plural of debate: debates

Origin of debate

From Middle English debaten, from Old French debatre (“to fight, contend, debate, also literally to beat down”), from Romanic desbattere, from Latin dis- (“apart, in different directions”) + battuō (“to beat, to fence”).

From Middle English debat, borrowed from Old French debat, deverbal of debatre, see Etymology 1 for more.

Words formed from debate

Phrases with debate

debate bros

Words that rhyme with debate

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about debate

What does debate mean?: Debate means to participate in a debate; to dispute, argue, especially in a public arena.
What is debate in Hindi?: Debate in Hindi is बहस करना (bahas karnā), वाद-विवाद करना (vād-vivād karnā), चर्चा करना (carcā karnā). See Debate meaning in Hindi.
How do you use debate in a sentence?: Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself.
What part of speech is debate?: Debate can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce debate?: Debate is pronounced /dɪˈbeɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of debate?: The past tense of debate is debated.

Words near debate in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: debate (page history and authors); debate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); debate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಚರ್ಚೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors); debate (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); debate (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); debate (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); بحث کول (Pashto) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-debate.ogg.

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