Word.ws English Dictionary

semicontroversial

semicontroversial adjective: causing some controversy, but not enough to be considered controversial.

Adjective

semicontroversial (not comparable)

  1. Causing some controversy, but not enough to be considered controversial.
    • Never mind the semicontroversial "Stop Snitching" T-shirts, where the threatening command not to talk to the police is inscribed within a red octagon.2005 October 13, Kelefa Sanneh, “Cracking the Code in Hip-Hop”, in The New York Times
    • He thinks like a politician, and he thinks like a lawyer. So the governor in particular is very careful about parsing his words, especially if we’re talking about a political issue that’s being negotiated in the Legislature, talking about things connected to Bridgegate, things that are...2015 January 26, Michael Barbaro, “A Radio Host’s Strategy for Christie: Let Him Rant”, in The New York Times

Synonyms of semicontroversial

Origin of semicontroversial

From semi- + controversial.

Questions about semicontroversial

What does semicontroversial mean?
Semicontroversial means causing some controversy, but not enough to be considered controversial.
What part of speech is semicontroversial?
Semicontroversial is an adjective.

Words near semicontroversial in the dictionary

  1. semicontinental
  2. semicontinuity
  3. semicontinuous
  4. semicontinuously
  5. semicontrolled
  6. semicontroversial
  7. semiconvection
  8. semiconvective
  9. semiconvergence
  10. semiconvergent
  11. semiconvergents

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: semicontroversial (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: “semicontroversial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/semicontroversial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.