Word.ws English Dictionary

no contest

no contest noun: a type of plea in a criminal proceeding where the defendant neither admits nor denies guilt but consents to the imposition of punishment as if guilty.

Noun

no contest (countable and uncountable, plural no contests)

  1. (US) A type of plea in a criminal proceeding where the defendant neither admits nor denies guilt but consents to the imposition of punishment as if guilty.
    Synonyms:
    nolo contendere
  2. (US) A clause in a will that imposes a penalty of forfeiture against any beneficiary who challenges the will.
    • No contest clauses are valid in California and are favored by the public policies of discouraging litigation and giving effect to the settlor's expressed purposes.2021, Susan F. French, A California Companion for the Course in Wills, Trusts, and Estates
  3. (historical) The result of a boxing bout, promoted as an exhibition when the sport of boxing was illegal, when a knockout did not occur.
  4. A bout that the referee cancels early, either due to a serious injury early in the fight or due to a lack of action
  5. An election in which the candidate runs unopposed.
    • In four wards there were no contests.1867, Parliamentary Papers, volume 56, page 76

Interjection

no contest

  1. (informal) Used to indicate that a competition or comparison is one-sided and so its outcome is too obvious to be interesting.
    Synonyms:
    no comparison
  2. (emphatic, informal) Expresses certainty in a choice between options or preferences.
    • I'll take a Porsche, no contest!

Phrase

no contest

  1. (informal) Indicates the perceived lack of any real competition because the “winner” or superior choice is obvious.
    • To all the things DVD does better than the videocassette, add the boxed set. In looks alone there is no contest.2000 November 5, Peter M. Nichols, “HOLIDAY FILMS; Studios Move Slowly With DVD Boxed Sets”, in The New York Times
    Synonyms:
    no comparison

no contest meaning in Tamil

no contest in Tamil

குற்றவியல் வழக்குகளில், நீதிபதிகள், இவைகளையும் காணவும்

Synonyms of no contest

Forms of no contest

pluralno contests

Origin of no contest

Calque of Latin nolō contendere (“I don't want to contest”).

Words formed from no contest

Questions about no contest

What does no contest mean?
No contest means a type of plea in a criminal proceeding where the defendant neither admits nor denies guilt but consents to the imposition of punishment as if guilty.
What is no contest in Tamil?
No contest in Tamil is குற்றவியல் வழக்குகளில், நீதிபதிகள், இவைகளையும் காணவும். See No contest meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is no contest?
No contest can be a noun, an interjection or a phrase.
What is the plural of no contest?
The plural of no contest is no contests.

Words near no contest in the dictionary

  1. no comparison
  2. no complies
  3. no comply
  4. no complys
  5. no contact, no contract
  6. no contest
  7. no contests
  8. no crime
  9. no crimed
  10. no crimes
  11. no criming

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: no contest (page history and authors); no contest (Tamil Wiktionary) (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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Cite this entry: “no contest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/no_contest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.