Contentious

How to spell contentious

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce contentious

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does contentious mean?

1. adjectiveLikely to cause disagreement or argument; involving strong opposing opinions.

Contentious in a sentence

• The new parking policy proved deeply contentious among local residents.

• The lawyer avoided the most contentious clause until both parties had calmed down.

Where does contentious come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin contentiosus, meaning 'quarrelsome' or 'fond of dispute', which was built on the noun contentio, 'a striving or struggle'. That noun in turn came from the verb contendere, 'to strive, struggle, or contend', formed from con- (an intensifying prefix) and tendere, meaning 'to stretch'. The mental image is people stretching and straining against one another, which is exactly what a heated argument feels like. English took the word in through Old French contencieux in the late 1300s, originally describing people who loved to quarrel. The same tendere root that means 'stretch' also gives us 'tension', 'tendon', and 'extend', and the link to 'contend' helps explain the spelling: it is content plus -ious, with that tricky -tious ending sounding exactly like -cious but spelled with a t.

How the word is built

• con- (together, intensive)
• tend (from Latin tendere: to stretch, strive)
• -ious (adjective suffix)