counterargument

noun

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

variants or counter-argument

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.

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

This posture of playing it politically safe to protect their own fiefdoms without offering a counterargument had grown stale. —Tom Garrubba, Forbes, 1 Sep. 2021

The typical counterargument, both in politics and pop culture, has been that immigrants pursuing their ambitions help to strengthen all of America. —James Poniewozik, New York Times, 26 Dec. 2022

Susanne Baremore, 53, of Redding, made a counterargument. —Los Angeles Times, 9 Nov. 2022

There’s a counterargument, of course: Won’t non-work time just be eaten up by unpaid labor, like care work? —Quartz Staff, Quartz, 22 Sep. 2022

The counterargument will be that art is art, generally suggesting that any semblance of a soul is in the eye of the beholder and not how the art was generated or produced. —Lance Eliot, Forbes, 29 Dec. 2022

Andonovski’s counterargument, though, would be no less compelling. —Rory Smith, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2022

Some back and forth between Grassroots and NPD followed, but Grassroots wasn’t satisfied with NPD’s counterargument. —Eric Smith, Outside Online, 21 Oct. 2021

Of course, the counterargument is that any autonomous system that has been weaponized would seem to have the potential for sliding into the lethality realm, even if supposedly only envisioned for use on a non-lethal basis. —Lance Eliot, Forbes, 25 July 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1812, in the meaning defined above