polemical
/pəˈlɛmɪkəl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/pəˈlemɪkəl/
polemical adjective: being an attempt to evaluate the arguments comprehensively.
Adjective
polemical (comparative more polemical, superlative most polemical)
- Being an attempt to evaluate the arguments comprehensively.
- […] in order to give a comprehensive critical and polemical analysis of the Dictionary in question, a whole book would be needed.1996, Igor Diakonoff, Leonid Kogan, “Addenda et Corrigenda to Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary by V. Orel and O. Stolbova”, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, volume...
- Bachelard has given a clear analysis of the "Atlas complex", a polemical complex and schema of verticalising effort or elevation, accompanied by a feeling of monarchical contemplation which diminishes the world so as better to glorify the gigantic, and the ambition inherent in ascensional reveries.1999, Gilbert Durand, The Anthropological Structures of the Imaginary, page 154
- Prone to causing disputes; inclined to causing the expression of opposing opinions, disputatious, contentious, edgy.
- And though the annals of the period do not show us that there was less ale drawn, or less canary called for; men got dry with the heat of polemical discussion, and drunk with a text, not the fag end of a ballad, in their mouths; and people made a sort of morality of straight hair, long faces, and...1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 190
- Not only are all these allegations worded in an unnecessarily polemical style, they are also simply false2012, Craig L. Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables, →ISBN, page 48
Noun
polemical (plural polemicals)
polemical meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
polemical in Tamil
- சொல்லாடலுக்குரிய
polemical in Urdu
- حجتی, نزاعی
polemical in Malayalam
- hostile, critical, bitter
- തർക്കപരമായ, വാദശീലമായ, വിരുദ്ധമായ, ഖണ്ഡന, വിവാദാത്മകമായ, വിമർശിക്കുന്ന
Examples of polemical in a sentence
- Remarkable here is the rather polemical choice of words […]2013, Johannes Zachhuber, Theology as Science in Nineteenth-Century Germany, →ISBN, page 57:
- And I’ve been in polemical firefights with antisemites and actual misogynists, not people who are accused of being that way.2025 October 9, Ross Douthat, quoting Doug Wilson, “He Believes America Should Be a Theocracy. He Says His Influence Is Growing.”, in The...
Forms of polemical
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more polemical |
| superlative | most polemical |
| alternative form (obsolete) | polemicall |
| Noun | |
| plural | polemicals |
Origin of polemical
From polemic + -al. By surface analysis, polem- + -ic + -al.
Words formed from polemical
Questions about polemical
- What does polemical mean?
- Polemical means being an attempt to evaluate the arguments comprehensively.
- What is polemical in Tamil?
- Polemical in Tamil is சொல்லாடலுக்குரிய. See Polemical meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use polemical in a sentence?
- Remarkable here is the rather polemical choice of words […]
- What part of speech is polemical?
- Polemical can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce polemical?
- Polemical is pronounced /pəˈlɛmɪkəl/ (UK).
Words near polemical in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: polemical (page history and authors); polemical (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); polemical (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); polemical (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset 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-polemical.wav.
Cite this entry: “polemical.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/polemical. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.