dispute

1. 1.

   a disagreement or argument about something important

   “he had a dispute with his wife”

   “there were irreconcilable differences”

   “the familiar conflict between Republicans and Democrats”

   Synonymsdifferencedifference of opinionconflict

   Broaderdisagreement

   Narrowercollisioncontroversygapquarrel
2. 2.

   coming into conflict with

   Synonymscontravention

   Broaderresistance

1. 1.

   take exception to

   “She challenged his claims”

   Synonymschallengegainsay

   Broadercontest

   Narrowercall
2. 2.

   have a disagreement over something

   “We quarreled over the question as to who discovered America”

   “These two fellows are always scrapping over something”

   Synonymsquarrelscrapargufyaltercate

   Broaderargue

   Narrowerbrawlspatpolemizefall out

Other forms of dispute

plural

disputes·

past tense

disputed·

present participle

disputing·

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 dispute

What does dispute mean?

dispute means "a disagreement or argument about something important". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in dispute?

dispute has 2 syllables: di-spute. The stress falls on "spute". In IPA it is /dɪˈspjut/.

What is another word for dispute?

Close synonyms include difference, difference of opinion, conflict, contravention, challenge. 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 dispute a common word?

dispute is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.