Word.ws English Dictionary

wedge issue

wedge issue noun: a discussion point or a difference in points of view which is particularly likely to be controversial and a source of discord between discussants or other involved parties; a difference in viewpoints which causes disharmony within a political or social group.

Noun

wedge issue (plural wedge issues)

  1. A discussion point or a difference in points of view which is particularly likely to be controversial and a source of discord between discussants or other involved parties; a difference in viewpoints which causes disharmony within a political or social group.
    • "It's sick," he gripes. "Everybody is tired of someone getting a job because of color." Republicans are exploiting such frustration. . . .. Says Kathy Spillar, national coordinator for the Feminist Majority: "The GOP wants to use it as a racial wedge issue."1996 March 25, Catherine Yang, “Worried white men may be the GOP's ace in the hole”, in businessweek.com, retrieved 11 May 2011
    • The speech . . . gave Democrats that rare gift: a wedge issue that split Republicans and united Democrats.2006 July 30, Nancy Gibbs, “Stem Cells: The Hope And The Hype”, in Time

Forms of wedge issue

pluralwedge issues

Questions about wedge issue

What does wedge issue mean?
Wedge issue means a discussion point or a difference in points of view which is particularly likely to be controversial and a source of discord between discussants or other involved parties; a difference in viewpoints which causes disharmony within a political or social group.
What part of speech is wedge issue?
Wedge issue is a noun.
What is the plural of wedge issue?
The plural of wedge issue is wedge issues.

Words near wedge issue in the dictionary

  1. wedge gauges
  2. wedge gear
  3. wedge gears
  4. wedge heel
  5. wedge heels
  6. wedge issue
  7. wedge issues
  8. wedge of circles
  9. wedge pea
  10. wedge politics
  11. wedge prism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wedge issue (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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