Confrontation

How to spell confrontation

13 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce confrontation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does confrontation mean?

1. nounA hostile or argumentative meeting between opposing people or groups.

Confrontation in a sentence

• The manager wanted to avoid a public confrontation with the angry customer.

• The negotiation broke down into a tense confrontation over money.

Where does confrontation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin frons, meaning 'forehead' or 'face', which extended naturally to mean the 'front' of anything. From it medieval Latin built confrontare, literally 'to set face to face' or 'to put boundaries opposite one another', combining the prefix con- 'together' with that frons root. The abstract noun confrontation reached English through French in the seventeenth century, at first describing the formal bringing together of witnesses to face one another in a trial. Over time it broadened to mean any hostile meeting or clash of opposing parties. The same frons root still sits visibly inside 'front', 'frontier', and 'affront', and remembering that the word is built on 'front' is the easiest way to keep the spelling on track.

How the word is built

• con- (together, with)
• front (from Latin frons/frontis: forehead, face, front)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix)