controversy

English

Etymology

From Old French controversie, from Latin contrōversia (“debate, contention, controversy”), from contrōversus (“turned in an opposite direction”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈtɹɒvəsi/, /ˈkɒntɹəˌvɜːsi/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑntɹəˌvɝsi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

controversy (countable and uncountable, plural controversies)

1. A debate or discussion of opposing opinions; (generally) strife.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dispute

   • 1605, Francis Bacon, “The First Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC, folio 11, recto:

     [A]nd it is without all controuerſie, that learning doth make the minds of men gentle, generous, maniable, and pliant to gouernment; whereas Ignorance makes them churlish[,] thwart, and mutinous; [...]

   • 2011 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Everton 0 – 2 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport‎^[1], archived from the original on 15 July 2019:

     The game was engulfed in controversy when [Jack] Rodwell appeared to win the ball cleanly in a midfield challenge with [Luis] Suarez. The tackle drew an angry response from Liverpool's players – Lucas in particular as Suarez writhed in agony – but it was an obvious injustice when the England Under-21 midfielder was shown the red card.

Derived terms

• controversial

Related terms

• controversialist
• controvert
• controverter
• controvertible

Translations

debate, discussion of opposing opinions

• Armenian: վեճ (hy) (več), վիճաբանություն (hy) (vičabanutʻyun)
• Basque: eztabaida
• Belarusian: спор m (spor), спрэ́чка f (spréčka)
• Bulgarian: спор (bg) m (spor), диску́сия (bg) f (diskúsija)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 爭論／争论 (zh) (zhēnglùn), 争论 (zh) (zhēnglùn), 爭議／争议 (zh) (zhēngyì), 争议 (zh) (zhēngyì)

• Dutch: controverse (nl)
• Esperanto: disputado
• Estonian: vaidlus
• Finnish: sanaharkka (fi), kiista (fi)
• French: controverse (fr) f, polémique (fr) f
• Galician: controversia f
• German: Kontroverse (de) f, Meinungsverschiedenheit (de) f
• Greek: διαμάχη (el) f (diamáchi)

  Ancient: ἀμφισβήτησις f (amphisbḗtēsis)

• Hebrew: מחלוקת (he) f (makhloqet), חילוקי דעות m pl (khiluqei de'ot)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: vita (hu), polémia (hu)
• Italian: controversia (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 論争 (ja) (ろんそう, ronsō)
• Korean: 논쟁 (ko) (nonjaeng), 토론 (ko) (toron), 논의 (nonui)
• Latin: contrōversia f
• Latvian: polemika f, kontroversija f
• Maori: whiuwhiu kupu
• Persian: هم ستیزی
• Polish: spór (pl) m
• Portuguese: controvérsia (pt) f
• Romanian: controversă (ro) f, dispută (principială) f, discuție (ro) f
• Russian: спор (ru) m (spor), диску́ссия (ru) f (diskússija), разногла́сия (ru) n pl (raznoglásija)
• Scottish Gaelic: connspaid f, connsachadh m
• Serbo-Croatian: kontrovèrzija (sh) f, kontrovèrza (sh) f
• Spanish: controversia (es) f, polémica (es) f
• Swedish: kontrovers (sv) c
• Thai: การโต้เถียง, การวิวาท (th) (wí-wâat)
• Turkish: ihtilaf (tr), cidal (tr), anlaşmazlık (tr), uyuşmazlık (tr), tartışma (tr), münazara (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: جدال (cidal)

• Ukrainian: супере́ка f (superéka), спір m (spir)
• Vietnamese: tranh cãi (vi)

Further reading

• “controversy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “controversy”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.