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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

contend.

To be in opposition; to contest; to dispute; to vie; to quarrel; to fight.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/kənˈtɛnd/
  1. To be in opposition; to contest; to dispute; to vie; to quarrel; to fight.

    intransitive
  2. To struggle or exert oneself to obtain or retain possession of, or to defend.

    intransitive
  3. To be in debate; to engage in discussion; to dispute; to argue.

    intransitive
  4. To believe (something is reasonable) and argue (for it); to advocate.

    intransitive
    In this paper the author contends that no useful results can be obtained if this method is used.
  5. To try to cope with a difficulty or problem.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English contenden, borrowed from Old French contendre, from Latin contendere (“to stretch out, extend, strive after, contend”), from com- (“together”) + tendere (“to stretch”); see tend, and compare attend, extend, intend, subtend.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.