debater

plural debaters

1. One who debates or participates in a debate; one who argues.

   William is a great debater.

   2 more examples

   Benjamin Disraeli, who was a pretty bright guy—a novelist, debater, and prime minister of England—tried to identify a person once and ended up exclaiming, "A Polish nobleman, a Count somebody; I never can remember their crack-jaw name."

   2009, Patsy Clairmont, All Cracked Up: Experiencing God in the Broken Places

   Chief among the strategies exploiting this rule was "spreading" (a combination of "speed" and "reading"), where debaters would rattle off arguments at a blistering pace. Their speeches often exceeded 300 words per minute. (A conversational pace is about 60 per minute.)

   2017 September 26, Jack McCordick, “The Corrosion of High School Debate—And How It Mirrors American Politics”, in America, New York, N.Y.: America Press Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Jun 2023

   Synonyms: arguer, arguee