contest

plural contests

1. uncountableControversy; debate.

   no contest

   1 more example

   Your question betrays, I suspect, a somewhat naive vision of the world as much smaller (and much more homogenized) than it could possibly be — a vision that one of my "personal" visions, as you'll find it in some of my recent science fiction, is specifically and heartedly in contest with.

   1986, Samuel R. Delany, Joseph Beam, “The Possibility of Possibilities”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 207

   Synonyms: controversy, debate, discussion

2. uncountableStruggle for superiority; combat.

   Synonyms: battle, combat, fight

3. countableA competition.

   The child entered the spelling contest.

   Synonyms: competition, pageant

present singular third person contests · participle present contesting · participle past contested · past contested

1. intransitiveTo contend.

   I will contest for the open seat on the board.

   2 more examples

   Of man, who dares in pomp with Jove contest?

   1725, Homer, “Book IV”, in [Elijah Fenton], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC

   1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth As for the difficulty or obscurity of an argument, that does but add to the pleasure.of contesting with it when there are hopes of victory

   Synonyms: compete, contend, go in for, joust

2. transitiveTo call into question; to oppose.

   The rival contested the dictator's re-election because of claims of voting irregularities.

   2 more examples

   Few philosophical aphorisms have been more frequently repeated, few more contested than this.

   1848, John Daniel Morell, Historical and Critical View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Century

   On the other hand, the nationalitarian phenomenon is one in which the struggle against the imperialist powers of occupation has as its object, beyond the clearing of the national territory, the independence and sovereignty of the national State, uprooting in depth the positions of the ex-colonial power— the reconquest of the power of decision in all domains of national life, the prelude to that reconquest of identity which is at the heart of the renaissance undertaken on the basis of fundamental national demands, and ceaselessly contested, by every means available, on every level, and notably on the internal level'.

   1981, Anouar Abdel-Malek, Social Dialectics: Nation and Revolution, page 13

   Synonyms: call into question, oppose · Antonyms: support

3. transitiveTo strive earnestly to hold or maintain; to struggle to defend.

   The troops contested every inch of ground.

4. lawTo make a subject of litigation; to defend, as a suit; to dispute or resist, as a claim, by course of law.

   Synonyms: controvert