controverse

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/ˈkɒntɹəvɜː(ɹ)s//kɒntɹəˈvɜː(ɹ)s/

noun

Controversy.

OriginMiddle French controverse →
Scrabble 16
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Meanings

nouncontroverse (plural controverses)

plural controverses

  1. obsoleteControversy.

    So fitly now here commeth next in place, After the proofe of prowesse ended well, The controverse of beauties soveraine grace […]

    1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
verbcontroverse (third-person singular simple present controverses, present participle controversing, simple past and past participle controversed)

present singular third person controverses · participle present controversing · participle past controversed · past controversed

  1. obsoleteto controvert

Origin

  1. Middle Frenchcontroverse
  2. Middle Frenchcontroverse
  3. Englishcontroverse

Borrowed from Middle French controverse.

More words from Middle French

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

seroconvert
Cite this entry
APA

controverse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/controverse

MLA

“controverse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/controverse. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “controverse,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/controverse.

Source: controverse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.