contentious
Marked by heated arguments or controversy.
Adjective
- Marked by heated arguments or controversy.
- Ukraine, however, will complain long and hard about a contentious second-half incident when Marko Devic's shot clearly crossed the line before it was scrambled away by John Terry, only for the officials to remain...
- His essay[…] is likely to draw a furious response from across the party, where [Tony] Blair’s legacy remains highly contentious. - 2026 May 26, Jessica Elgot, “Tony Blair tells Starmer and rivals: abandon net zero and...
- Given to struggling with others out of jealousy or discord.
- She was not a contentious person as the Other had been; she did not argue and contradict everything I said. - 2020, Susanna Clarke, Piranesi, Bloomsbury, page 212:
Synonyms: agonistic argumentative bangsome bellicose belligerent contentious debateful discordant disputatious factious fractious fratchety fratchy litigious logomachic pettifogging quarrelous quarrelsome rantankerous squabbly strifeful unpacific aggressive antagonistic
Origin
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *ten- Proto-Indo-European *tend-der. Proto-Italic *tendō Latin tendō Latin contendō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin contentiō Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃édosder.? Proto-Italic *-ōtsos or *-otsos Latin -ōsus Latin contentiōsus Middle French contentieux English contentious From Middle French contentieux, from Latin contentiōsus (“quarrelsome, perverse”), from contentiō (“contention”), from contendere, past participle contentus (“to contend”). Equivalent to English contention + -ous.