contentious.
Marked by heated arguments or controversy.
Meaning & usage
Marked by heated arguments or controversy.
Given to struggling with others out of jealousy or discord.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *ten- Proto-Indo-European *tend- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *téndeti Proto-Italic *tendō Latin tendō Latin contendō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin contentiō Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃édosder.? Proto-Italic *-ŏ̄dsos? Old Latin -ōssus Latin -ōsus Latin contentiōsus Middle French contentieux English contentious From Middle French contentieux, from Latin contentiōsus (“quarrelsome, perverse”), from contentiō (“contention”), from contendere, past participle contentus (“to contend”). Equivalent to English contention + -ous.
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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.