Meanings
plural disputants
- A participant in a dispute.
1 more example
1893, Henry James, Collaboration https://web.archive.org/web/20061013012124/http://www.henryjames.org.uk/collab/CLtext.htm One of the liveliest scenes of the performance was the evening, last winter, on which I became aware that one of my compatriots – an American, my good friend Alfred Bonus – was engaged in a controversy somewhat acrimonious, on a literary subject, with Herman Heidenmauer, the young composer who had been playing to us divinely a short time before and whom I thought of neither as a disputant nor as an Englishman.
comparative more disputant · superlative most disputant
- Disputing; engaged in controversy.
[...] [T]here was found / Among the graveſt Rabbies diſputant / On points and queſtions fitting Moſes Chair, / Teaching not taught; [...]
1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 89, lines 217–220
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna person who disputes; who is good at or enjoys controversy
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*dwóh₁
- Proto-Indo-European*trísinflu.
- Proto-Indo-European*d(w)is-
- Proto-Italic*dis-
- Latindis-
- Latinputus
- Latinputō
- Latindisputo
- Old Frenchdesputer
- Middle Englishdisputen
- Englishdispute
- Englishdisputant
Translations
Korean 논쟁자
- 논쟁자 (nonjaengja)participant in a dispute
Cite this entry
disputant. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disputant
“disputant.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disputant. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “disputant,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disputant.
Source: disputant on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.