argumentative

adjective

ar·gu·men·ta·tive | \ ˌär-gyə-ˈmen-tə-tiv

variants: or less commonly argumentive \ -ˈmen-tiv

Definition of argumentative

1 : given to argument : tending to argue : having or showing a tendency to disagree or argue with other people in an angry way : disputatious He became argumentative when confronted with the allegation. an argumentative temperament … had been a pigheaded, argumentative, irascible, and unlikable man …— Colleen McCullough

2 : consisting of or characterized by argument argumentative discourse aired their opinions in an argumentative way

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Examples of argumentative in a Sentence

He became more argumentative during the debate. he's too argumentative to be part of a project in which teamwork is critical

Recent Examples on the Web

The court ruled that many of Deputy Banks’s claims were argumentative and unsupported in the more than 3,000 pages of documents in the case record. — Walt Bogdanich, New York Times, "Suit Against Agent Who Reinvestigated a Florida Mother’s Death Is Dismissed," 2 Apr. 2018 Officers argued that Johnson did not comply with their orders and was argumentative during the encounter. — P.r. Lockhart, Vox, "Disturbing video shows Mesa police officers brutally beating an unarmed man," 6 June 2018 Upon waking him up, police say Martinez-Morales appeared intoxicated, refused to identify himself and was argumentative with officers. — Pioneer Press, chicagotribune.com, "Libertyville police: Man with revoked license tried to use family member's name," 21 May 2018 Related The video does not contain audio, although police claim Johnson was argumentative and refusing commands to sit down. — NBC News, "Four Arizona police officers put on leave after video shows man's beating," 6 June 2018 Officers found the man to be drunk and argumentative. — Andy Attina / Cleveland.com, cleveland.com, "Officers investigating theft of cash from safe at Chipotle: Highland Heights Police Blotter," 11 Jan. 2018 Those we're left with are too often argumentative and/or whiny without being very interesting about it, though they're all played capably enough. — Dennis Harvey, chicagotribune.com, "'Feral' review: Lost campers, a mysterious hermit and second-rate zombies," 31 May 2018 Almandinger, until then argumentative and defiant, broke down and asked for a garbage can to throw up in. — Zaz Hollander, Anchorage Daily News, "The details in the Grunwald killing fell into place one early December day in 2016," 25 May 2018 Management there also had called the police for help after Clark became argumentative. — Anita Chabria, sacbee, "Police were called to handle an escalating mental-health crisis. This is why they backed off | The Sacramento Bee," 20 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'argumentative.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.