Controvert

verb

verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To dispute, to argue about (something). transitive
  2. 2
    prove to be false or incorrect wordnet
  3. 3
    To argue against (something or someone); to contradict, to deny. transitive

    "[T]hat women from their education and the present state of civilized life, are in the same condition, cannot, I think, be controverted."

  4. 4
    be resistant to wordnet
  5. 5
    To be involved or engaged in controversy; to argue. intransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
opposerefuteabjureairanalyzeanswer

Example

More examples

"I shall have to controvert one or two ideas that are almost universally accepted."

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin contrōvertere, from Latin contrō- (“against”) + vertere (“to turn”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.