disputatious

adjective

dis·pu·ta·tious ˌdi-spyə-ˈtā-shəs

Synonyms of disputatious next

: inclined to dispute

: marked by disputation

: provoking debate : controversial

disputatiously adverb

disputatiousness noun

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The History of Disputatious Isn't Controversial

Disputatious can be used of both people and things. Disputatious people like to provoke arguments or find something to disagree about. In the "things" category, the word can apply to both situations and issues. For example, court trials are disputatious; that is, they are marked by disputation, or verbal controversy. An issue or matter is disputatious if it provokes controversy. However, if a matter, such as an assertion made by someone, is open to question rather than downright controversial, it's merely disputable. In any case, there's no arguing that both disputatious and its synonym disputative have changed their connotation somewhat from their Latin source, the verb disputare. That word means simply "to discuss."

Example Sentences

a long history of little wars waged by the disputatious countries occupying that European peninsula a disputatious professor who could give you an argument on just about anything

Recent Examples on the Web Hans Küng, a Roman Catholic theologian and priest whose brilliantly disputatious, lucidly expressed thoughts in more than 50 books and countless speeches advanced ecumenism and provoked the Vatican to censure him, died on Tuesday at his home in Tübingen, Germany. —

New York Times, 6 Apr. 2021 Mercurial, determined, needy, disputatious—the moods more so than seasons of Acker’s life were rapid, and any biography is bound to contradict and complement and hone the myths that continue to attract us to her writing and her symbol. —

Liz Sullivan, Hazlitt, 5 Dec. 2022 Today’s disputatious conservatives are leading our latest effort to conjoin individual freedom and collective purpose. —

Christopher Demuth, WSJ, 18 Nov. 2022 Its lament resonates for art once seen as a disputatious civic forum, now overrun by the hard coin of investment markets. —

Los Angeles Times, 21 Nov. 2021 In his interviews, Harris adopts a drowsy monotone that seems pitched to signal his commitment to the dispassionate promotion of disputatious ideas. —

Gideon Lewis-kraus, The New Yorker, 6 Sep. 2021 In the first, 100 brothers, of the same parents, gather in their family’s dilapidated library for a splendidly disputatious meal. —

New York Times, 19 Apr. 2021 That sense of weighty expectation feels heightened this year, as a fragile, disputatious America prepares for an enormous mobilization to manufacture and distribute hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to finally bring the pandemic under control. —

Michael Luo, The New Yorker, 20 Dec. 2020 Manet’s buddy Charles Baudelaire, the disputatious journalist, poet and art critic, described artists’ emerging role as being painters of modern life, and urbanity seeped into many private nooks and crannies. —

Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2019 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'disputatious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.