CONTENDING Synonyms: 91 Similar and Opposite Words

contending

verb

present participle of contend

as in competing

to engage in a contest two traditional rivals contending for the championship

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

as in arguing

to state (something) as a reason in support of or against something under consideration contended that the senator's considerable experience made him the best candidate

Synonyms & Similar Words

as in alleging

to state as a fact usually forcefully contended that his opponent was wrong about practically everything

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of contending Then the team didn’t make any serious additions at the 2024 deadline even though the Twins were contending for a wild-card spot, a decision that backfired when a club that was 70-53 collapsed, losing 29 of 41 games and missing the playoffs. — Dan Hayes, New York Times, 1 Aug. 2026 The team figures to be sellers at the deadline and Holmes is certainly someone that a few contending teams would want on their roster. — Mike Barner, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026 Decisions on matters such as war, citizenship, exile and capital punishment were made in the assemblies and courts, where citizens heard contending speeches and voted immediately afterwards. — Richard Yanowitch, Mercury News, 29 July 2026 Pitching is always in high demand at the trade deadline and Garrett would be an option as a back end of the rotation starter or a swingman for a contending team. — Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 29 July 2026 But again, many contending teams are in desperate need of relief pitching. — Kansas City Star, 23 July 2026 Games between elite teams are mostly 55%/45% or 60%/40% toss-ups, and contending programs like Texas or Georgia could rebound and win a title this year. — Ian Miller Outkick, FOXNews.com, 20 July 2026 Beijing has so far avoided that framing, and is contending fiercely with Washington across the board. — Ann Scott Tyson, Christian Science Monitor, 15 July 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for contending

Verb

Veteran Demarcus Robinson is also competing for a roster spot.

— Chris Biderman, Sacbee.com, 31 July 2026
The competition series featured masters of shamanism, tarot, face and foot reading, saju and other divination disciplines competing in challenges that tested their abilities, using tools including fans, bells, dowsing rods and modern-day laptops.

— Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 30 July 2026

Definition of competing

Verb

On July 28, Mark Zuckerberg published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal arguing that superintelligence should be distributed as widely as possible and that concentrating it in a handful of institutions is the greatest risk AI poses to humanity.

— Anisha Sircar, Forbes.com, 30 July 2026
That was, frankly, ridiculous, and our coverage said as much, arguing that this deep dive into one of Hollywood’s most notorious genre disasters deserved a much wider release.

— Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 30 July 2026

Definition of arguing

Verb

The family of a 23-year-old man killed in a wrong-way crash is suing the Florida Department of Transportation, alleging that detection software designed to prevent such incidents failed on the night of the tragedy.

— Steve Maugeri, CBS News, 31 July 2026
But let’s circle back to the dramatic ending of last week’s Rocky Horror party, when Georgia told Emira about the transphobic comment Charlie had made (alleging that her boyfriend was actually gay).

— Tom Smyth, Vulture, 30 July 2026

Definition of alleging

Verb

Every major announcement has been measured in number of parameters, benchmark scores, reasoning capabilities, training and squeezing as much performance as possible while driving costs down.

— Francis Sideco, Forbes.com, 21 July 2026
The update to Muse Spark beats out Google’s latest release of Gemini in benchmarks measuring coding and reasoning capabilities, according to the tech giant.

— Ben Weiss, Fortune, 9 July 2026

Definition of reasoning

Verb

The Washington Post reported that Adjepong filed a motion claiming his ex-wife was violating their settlement agreement by preventing him from seeing his child in January 2025.

— Chiara Kim, PEOPLE, 28 July 2026
Scammers claiming to belong to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have also tricked shipping firms into sending hefty payments to their cryptocurrency wallets in exchange for safe passage.

— The Week US, TheWeek, 27 July 2026

Definition of claiming

Verb

There’s another comparison between Homer and the Bible that demonstrates parallels between Jesus and Odysseus while asserting Jesus’ superiority,MacDonald says.

— John Blake, CNN Money, 2 Aug. 2026
Anthropic’s guardrail was a sentence in a prompt asserting the internet was not there.

— Sandy Carter, Forbes.com, 2 Aug. 2026

Definition of asserting

Verb

Palantir says insisting on using local suppliers can come at the expense of public services and safety.

— Bloomberg, Mercury News, 28 July 2026
Improving diagnostics and supportive measures for autism For many years, clinicians have tried to treat differences in face processing by insisting autistic patients make eye contact—which researchers now know doesn’t work.

— Isabella Backman, Hartford Courant, 25 July 2026

Definition of insisting

Verb

In the audio, the child's mother is heard pleading for help while struggling to describe the incident.

— Steven Yablonski, CBS News, 30 July 2026
In exchange for pleading guilty to the four counts of first degree murder and a felony burglary charge—the death penalty and the right to make an appeal—were taken off the table.

— ForbesTV, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026