polemical

English

Alternative forms

• polemicall (obsolete)

Etymology

From polemic +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /pəˈlɛmɪkəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /pəˈlemɪkəl/

Adjective

polemical (comparative more polemical, superlative most polemical)

1. Related to argument or controversy; containing polemic, being polemic.
   1. Being an attempt to evaluate the arguments comprehensively.
      • 1996, Igor Diakonoff, Leonid Kogan, “Addenda et Corrigenda to Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary by V. Orel and O. Stolbova”, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, volume 146, page 25:

        […] in order to give a comprehensive critical and polemical analysis of the Dictionary in question, a whole book would be needed.

      • 1999, Gilbert Durand, The Anthropological Structures of the Imaginary, page 154:

        Bachelard has given a clear analysis of the "Atlas complex", a polemical complex and schema of verticalising effort or elevation, accompanied by a feeling of monarchical contemplation which diminishes the world so as better to glorify the gigantic, and the ambition inherent in ascensional reveries.

   2. (somewhat derogatory) Prone to causing disputes; inclined to causing the expression of opposing opinions, disputatious, contentious, edgy.
      • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 190:

        And though the annals of the period do not show us that there was less ale drawn, or less canary called for; men got dry with the heat of polemical discussion, and drunk with a text, not the fag end of a ballad, in their mouths; and people made a sort of morality of straight hair, long faces, and sad-coloured garments.

      • 2012, Craig L. Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables, →ISBN, page 48:

        Not only are all these allegations worded in an unnecessarily polemical style, they are also simply false

      • 2013, Johannes Zachhuber, Theology as Science in Nineteenth-Century Germany, →ISBN, page 57:

        Remarkable here is the rather polemical choice of words […]

      • 2021, Carson Holloway, Dobbs and Democratic Legitimacy, in: Law and Liberty, December 21 2021

        If democratic legitimacy is a principle—and not just a polemical weapon wielded by the left in a selective and self-serving way—then we would have to consider not only the democratic legitimacy of a potential reversal of Roe but also the democratic legitimacy (if any) of the constitutional right to abortion itself.

      • 2025 October 9, Ross Douthat, quoting Doug Wilson, “He Believes America Should Be a Theocracy. He Says His Influence Is Growing.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 October 2025:

        Correct. That was actually my first internet controversy many years ago, with the kinists, white identitarians — I call them skinists. And I’ve been in polemical firefights with antisemites and actual misogynists, not people who are accused of being that way.

Derived terms

• nonpolemical
• overpolemical
• philopolemical
• polemically
• unpolemical

Translations

of, or relating to argument or controversy; polemic or contentious

• Catalan: polèmic (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 挑起爭端嘅 / 挑起争端嘅 (tiu¹ hei² zang¹ dyun¹ ge³)

  Mandarin: 好争论的 (hàozhēnglùnde)

• Esperanto: polemika
• Georgian: პოლემიკური (ṗolemiḳuri)
• German: polemisch (de)

disputatious

• Catalan: polèmic (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 好争论的

• Georgian: პოლემიკური (ṗolemiḳuri)
• German: polemisch (de)

Noun

polemical (plural polemicals)

1. A diatribe or polemic.

Further reading

• “polemical”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “polemical”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.