counterargument

noun coun·ter·ar·gu·ment \ ˌkau̇n-tər-ˈär-gyə-mənt \

variants: or counter-argument

|Updated on: 17 Jun 2018

Definition of counterargument

plural counterarguments or counter-arguments

: an opposing argument

Joseph Stiglitz's new book, "The Price of Inequality," is the single most comprehensive counterargument to both Democratic neoliberalism and Republican laissez-faire theories.
—Thomas B. Edsall

… careful consideration of each of the arguments made by the appellant, and of the counter-arguments advanced by the appellees …
—Jonathan M. Landers et al.

Recent Examples of counterargument from the Web

Realistic counterarguments are unknown in this household, except as pure intellectual exercises.

— james wood, The New Yorker, "Helen DeWitt Has Your Number," 27 Oct. 2017
The counterargument from Trump loyalists was mainly to blame President Obama for failing to make the Iran deal binding.

— tod lindberg, WSJ, "Before Meeting Kim, Trump Had to Repudiate the Iran Deal," 22 May 2018
The counterargument is that states will suffer if rich taxpayers move to a lower-tax state.

— kathleen pender, San Francisco Chronicle, "California lags other high-tax states on state and local deduction workaround," 19 May 2018
What’s the counterargument to why to impose this kind of management system in the first place?

— recode staff, Recode, "Full transcript: Kleiner Perkins Chairman John Doerr on Recode Decode," 19 May 2018
The counterargument would be that the casualness with which Glover guns down a church choir, echoing the massacre in Charleston, is exactly the point.

— spencer kornhaber, The Atlantic, "Donald Glover Is Watching You Watch Him," 7 May 2018
The president in recent weeks has seemed more determined to follow his own instincts and less inclined to heed the counterarguments of senior officials.

— margaret talev, Bloomberg.com, "White House Denies McMaster Is Next to Be Ousted," 16 Mar. 2018
The counterargument was an interesting one because remember, Barack Obama went after Arizona and the courts, that as Jason indicated, that U.S. federal law is supreme in the area of immigration.

— Fox News, "Mike Pompeo on potential Trump-Kim Jong Un summit; Sen. Elizabeth Warren on North Korea, Trump's tariffs," 11 Mar. 2018
But a bad argument for the cut does not redeem a worse counterargument.

— john h. cochrane, WSJ, "Stock Buybacks Are Proof of Tax Reform’s Success," 5 Mar. 2018

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