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dispute

nounverbcommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈdɪ.spjuːt//
  • United Kingdom//ˈdɪ.spjʉwt//
  • Canada//ˈdɪ.spjut//
  • Canada//də-//
  • Australia//dəˈspjʉːt//
  • Scotland//dɪˈspjʉt//

An argument or disagreement; a failure to agree.

noun

  1. 1

    An argument or disagreement; a failure to agree.

    But is not this dispute over the question whether we have free will or not very like a dispute that we might engage in over the color of a tree — whether it be green or blue?

  2. 2

    An argument or disagreement; a failure to agree. A disagreement between parties in a contract, lawsuit, treaty, or other legal matter.

    Canadian experience throws light on the relative merits of a separate board for each dispute as compared with a permanent board to hear all disputes.

    A "who-does-what" labour dispute at Swindon works during April led to a stoppage of work on the construction of the new 0-6-0 Type 1 diesel-hydraulic locomotives of the D9500 series and work had not been resumed as we closed for press.

  3. 3

    Verbal controversy or disagreement; altercation; debate.

    Addicted more / To contemplation and profound dispute.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is- Proto-Italic *dis- Latin dis- Latin putus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin putō Latin disputo Old French desputerbor. Middle English disputen English dispute From Middle English disputen, from Old French desputer (French disputer), from Latin disputāre (“to dispute, discuss, examine, compute, estimate”), from dis- (“apart”) + putāre (“to reckon, consider, think, originally make clean, clear up”), related to purus (“pure”). Compare compute, count, impute, repute, amputate, etc.

verb

  1. 1

    To contend in argument; to argue against something maintained, upheld, or claimed, by another.

  2. 2

    To make a subject of disputation; to argue pro and con; to discuss.

    Some residents disputed the proposal, saying it was based more on emotion than fact.

  3. 3

    To oppose by argument or assertion; to controvert; to express dissent or opposition to; to call into question; to deny the truth or validity of.

    to dispute assertions or arguments

    to seize goods under the disputed authority of writs of assistance

  4. 4

    To strive or contend about; to contest.

    to dispute the possession of the ground with the Spaniards

  5. 5

    obsoleteTo struggle against; to resist.

    Dispute it [grief] like a man.

Forms

plural
disputes
past tense
disputed
past participle
disputed
present participle
disputing
third person singular
disputes
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).