polemic

noun po·lem·ic \ pə-ˈle-mik \

|Updated on: 8 Jul 2018

Examples: polemic in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of polemic

1 a : an aggressive attack on or refutation of the opinions or principles of another

b : the art or practice of disputation or controversy —usually used in plural but singular or plural in construction

2 : an aggressive controversialist : disputant

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polemicist

play \pə-ˈle-mə-sist\ noun

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Examples of polemic in a Sentence

Her book is a fierce polemic against the inequalities in our society.
They managed to discuss the issues without resorting to polemics.

Recent Examples of polemic from the Web

In book after book, the authors include pages-long polemics about the nationalization of the police system, Stockholm’s overdevelopment and the miseries of urban life, and the many demographics that had fallen through society’s cracks.

— alice bolin, Longreads, "The Daughter as Detective," 26 June 2018
Once a music journalist, Moran is a British writer of feminist polemic.

— eve barlow, GQ, "15 Hours With Hinds, Spain's Wildest Rock Band," 25 June 2018
At first glance, her new book, Natural Causes, is a polemic against wellness culture and the institutions that sustain it.

— gabriel winant, The New Republic, "Barbara Ehrenreich’s radical critique of wellness and self-improvement," 23 May 2018
Mining the historical relationship between King Edward II of England (1284-1327) and his courtier Piers Gaveston, the 90-minute opera doesn’t seize on the story for a polemic on behalf of gay love.

— New York Times, "Review: A Long-Awaited New Opera Is a Raucous Beauty," 11 May 2018
That bit of plotting might sound overly convenient, but Schrader, never pretending to be writing anything other than a polemic, gives it a terribly persuasive banality.

— justin chang, latimes.com, "The bracing 'First Reformed,' starring a superb Ethan Hawke, resurrects Paul Schrader's career," 17 May 2018
Besides, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit works better as a polemic than as a novel, with ideas stated clearly to the point of repetitiousness.

— daniel d'addario, Time, "HBO’s Fahrenheit 451 Extinguishes What Made the Book Great," 14 May 2018
But why make these points in a novel and not, say, a tract, journalistic report, or polemic?

— nathaniel rich, The Atlantic, "The Novel That Asks, ‘What Went Wrong With Mankind?’," 11 May 2018
The play, like most of Ms. Thurber’s work, melds fiction and polemic with biography and autobiography.

— alexis soloski, New York Times, "From Three Troubled Lives, a Play and a New Family," 4 May 2018

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

Did You Know?

When polemic was borrowed into English from French polemique in the mid-17th century, it referred (as it still can) to a type of hostile attack on someone's ideas. The word traces back to Greek polemikos, which means "warlike" or "hostile" and in turn comes from the Greek noun polemos, meaning "war." Other, considerably less common descendants of polemos in English include polemarch ("a chieftain or military commander in ancient Greece"), polemoscope (a kind of binoculars with an oblique mirror), and polemology ("the study of war").

Origin and Etymology of polemic

French polémique, from Middle French, from polemique controversial, from Greek polemikos warlike, hostile, from polemos war; perhaps akin to Greek pelemizein to shake, Old English ealfelo baleful

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1626

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

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POLEMIC Defined for English Language Learners

polemic

noun

Definition of polemic for English Language Learners

: a strong written or spoken attack against someone else's opinions, beliefs, practices, etc.
polemics : the art or practice of using language to defend or harshly criticize something or someone