challenge

1. 1.

   a demanding or stimulating situation

   “they reacted irrationally to the challenge of Russian power”

   Broadersituation
2. 2.

   a call to engage in a contest or fight

   Broaderspeech act

   Narrowerdareconfrontationcall-outdefiancecalling into questiondemand for identificationgauntlet
3. 3.

   questioning a statement and demanding an explanation

   “his challenge of the assumption that Japan is still our enemy”

   Broaderquestioning
4. 4.

   a formal objection to the selection of a particular person as a juror

   Broaderobjection
5. 5.

   a demand by a sentry for a password or identification

   Broaderdemand

1. 1.

   take exception to

   “She challenged his claims”

   Synonymsdisputegainsay

   Broadercontest

   Narrowercall
2. 2.

   issue a challenge to

   “Fischer challenged Spassky to a match”

   Broaderinvite

   Narrowerprovokecounterchallengequestionimpeachimpugndefycall one's bluffcall outremitappeal
3. 3.

   ask for identification

   “The illegal immigrant was challenged by the border guard”

   Broaderrequest
4. 4.

   raise a formal objection in a court of law

   Synonymstake exception

   Broaderobject

   Narrowerappeal

   law

Other forms of challenge

plural

challenges·

past tense

challenged·

present participle

challenging·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about challenge

What does challenge mean?

challenge means "a demanding or stimulating situation". That is the primary sense; the word has 9 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in challenge?

challenge has 2 syllables: chal-lenge. The stress falls on "chal". In IPA it is /ˈtʃæləndʒ/.

What is another word for challenge?

Close synonyms include dispute, gainsay, take exception. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is challenge a common word?

challenge is banded "Core" — among the few thousand words that carry most english. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with challenge?

1 word rhymes with challenge. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.