controversial
/ˌkɑn.tɹəˈvɝ.ʃəl/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.23 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
13
Letters
4
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Arousing or likely to arouse controversy.
adj
Engaging in or given to controversy; disputatious, argumentative.
Example Sentences
- "Whole libraries of controversial books."
- "MAHER: Well, whatever. I just said we shouldn't have two national anthems. We're one country. It's not a good idea. We've seen what happens in other countries where you have, you know- when you separate things out. That's never where America was. That's never where liberalism was. It was about being a colorblind society. So, a new national anthem? Fine. I'll go for that. But not two. Because that leads down a road we don't wanna go. Applause. KIMMEL: Do you feel like... MAHER: Thank you. KIMMEL: Hey there's a lot of fear in the air and generally, you don't want to be caught applauding something that might be controversial. MAHER: I couldn't give a fuck. KIMMEL: I wasn't talking about you."
- "No fundamental doctrine was omitted. Controversials were carefully avoided. Whether any blessing attended these attempts, will be known at the last day."
- "Blowing like a blast of fresh astringent air into the hot-house atmosphere of these vapid languors, came news from America of a Rational Dress Campaign. Mrs. Amelia Bloomer’s conspicuous controversials were a wonderful gift to Punch, and were welcomed with enthusiasm and joyful derision by the cartoonists […]"
- "Napoleon’s a pastry / Get this under your brow / All those big wig controversials / Are all commercials now."
- "Although the numbers of controversial children were few, their finely tuned distinction between types of transgression concurs with the observation that the behaviour of controversials is highly skilled. While the behaviour of controversial children may often meet with negative reactions from peers and reprimands from adults, controversials may engage in even more prosocial behaviour than do popular peers (Dodge, 1983)."
Etymology
From Latin contrōversiālis, from contrōversia + -ālis. By surface analysis, controversy + -al.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: contrōversiālis
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌkɑn.tɹəˈvɝ.ʃəl/
- British English: /ˌkɒn.tɹəˈvɜː.ʃəl/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more controversial (comparative)
most controversial (superlative)
controversional (alternative, nonstandard)
controversials (plural)