CONTESTED Synonyms: 33 Similar and Opposite Words

contested

verb

past tense of contest

as in challenged

to demand proof of the truth or rightness of vowed to contest the claim in court

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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 contested In last month’s local elections, which proved disastrous for Labour across the country, Reform UK won 24 of the 25 seats contested in the Wigan area. —

Issy Ronald, CNN Money, 17 June 2026 Groups including Pussy Riot and FEMEN also staged demonstrations outside the Russia pavilion against the country’s participation in the event, which has been highly contested after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. —

Brian Boucher, ARTnews.com, 17 June 2026 The interpretation of these transformations in midwifery and its imagery have been fiercely contested. —

Literary Hub, 16 June 2026 Golden State built a 15-point first-quarter lead by forcing the Sparks into multiple contested, late clock jumpers. —

Nathan Canilao, Mercury News, 16 June 2026 The missile will be capable of flying low-altitude terrain-following flight trajectories and can operate in GPS denied and contested electronic warfare environments. —

Aditya Jadhav, Interesting Engineering, 15 June 2026 Whether the bypass really was that serious is not at all clear, and Anthropic has contested whether what administration officials showed the company even constitutes a jailbreak. —

Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 15 June 2026 Draper contested the claims and denied all wrongdoing and criticized the Commission on Judicial Performance. —

Queenie Wong, Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2026 Hypercar The top class, with the fastest cars, is called Hypercar, contested by factory teams and all-professional driver lineups. —

Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 12 June 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for contested

Verb

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has challenged six regional grid operators to justify or overhaul their connection rules for massive electricity users, like AI data centers, within 60 days.

— Ron Schmelzer, Forbes.com, 19 June 2026
For most leagues, this would be an open-and-shut case; a ban from the sport would never be challenged.

— Jemele Hill, The Atlantic, 19 June 2026