Altercation
noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 An angry or heated dispute. countable
"to get into an altercation over (something)"
- 2 noisy quarrel wordnet
- 3 An act of posing questions to, and obtaining answers from, a witness in a court of law. countable, historical
"The vvhole of this proceſs is denominated the pleading; in the ſeveral ſtages of vvhich it muſt be carefully obſerved, not to depart or vary from the title or defence, vvhich the party has once inſiſted on. For this (vvhich is called a departure in pleading) might occaſion endleſs altercation."
- 4 Angry or heated disputation. uncountable
"VVee ſeldome find one peece of Scripture ſo preciſely and plainely expounded by another, as in this Prophecie, to haue aftervvards beene the Subiect of altercation."
Example
More examples"An 18-year-old male is in hospital after an altercation at a party last night."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin altercātiō. Cognates * Catalan altercació * Italian altercazione * Occitan altercatio, altercassion * Portuguese altercação * Spanish altercación
More for "altercation"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.