challenge

[ chal-inj ]
See synonyms for: challengechallengedchallengeschallenging on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a call or summons to engage in any contest, as of skill, strength, etc.

  2. something that by its nature or character serves as a call to battle, contest, special effort, etc.: Space exploration offers a challenge to humankind.

  1. a call to fight, as a battle, a duel, etc.

  2. a demand to explain, justify, etc.: a challenge to the treasurer to itemize expenditures.

  3. difficulty in a job or undertaking that is stimulating to one engaged in it.

  4. Military. the demand of a sentry for identification or a countersign.

  5. Law. a formal objection to the qualifications of a particular juror, to that juror serving, or to the legality of an entire jury.: Compare peremptory challenge.

  6. the assertion that a vote is invalid or that a voter is not legally qualified.

  7. Biology. the process of inducing or assessing physiological or immunological activity by exposing an organism to a specific substance.

  8. Hunting. the crying of a hound on finding a scent.

verb (used with object),chal·lenged, chal·leng·ing.
  1. to summon to a contest of skill, strength, etc.

  2. to take exception to; call in question: to challenge the wisdom of a procedure.

  1. to demand as something due or rightful.

  2. Military. to halt and demand identification or countersign from.

  3. Law. to take formal exception to (a juror or jury).

  4. to have a claim to; invite; arouse; stimulate: a matter which challenges attention.

  5. to assert that (a vote) is invalid.

  6. to assert that (a voter) is not qualified to vote.

  7. to expose an organism to a specific substance in order to assess its physiological or immunological activity.

  8. Archaic. to lay claim to.

verb (used without object),chal·lenged, chal·leng·ing.
  1. to make or issue a challenge.

  2. Hunting. (of hounds) to cry or give tongue on picking up the scent.

adjective
  1. donated or given by a private, corporate, or government benefactor on condition that the recipient raise an additional specified amount from the public: a challenge grant.

Origin of challenge

1
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English chalenge, from Old French, variant of chalonge, from Latin calumnia “false statement”; see calumny

word story For challenge

The English verb challenge comes from Middle English kalange(n), chalenge(n) “to accuse, claim,” which comes from the Old French verb calonger, calanger, chalonger, chalanger (with still more variants) “to protest, complain,” from Latin calumniārī “to bring false accusations, interpret wrongly, misrepresent, criticize unfairly,” itself a derivation of the noun calumnia, with legal meanings “false accusation, false claim, false pretenses, the making of unfounded objections, trickery.” (The Old French noun chalenge, chalonge is a regular development of Latin calumnia: the cluster -mni- becomes -nge in French, as Latin somnium “dream” becomes Old French songe with the same meaning.)
Latin calumnia is the direct source of calumny, “a false and malicious statement,” so calumny and challenge are doublets (words deriving ultimately from the same source). In fact, an earlier, now obsolete meaning of challenge was “an accusation or false claim.”
The legal sense of challenge, “to object to (a juror or evidence),” dates from the 16th century. The verb sense “to summon someone to a fight or a duel” first appears in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost (1598).

Other words for challenge

Other words from challenge

  • chal·lenge·a·ble, adjective
  • pre·chal·lenge, verb (used with object), pre·chal·lenged, pre·chal·leng·ing.
  • re·chal·lenge, verb (used with object), re·chal·lenged, re·chal·leng·ing.
  • un·chal·lenge·a·ble, adjective
  • un·chal·lenge·a·bly, adverb

Words Nearby challenge

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use challenge in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for challenge

challenge

/ (ˈtʃælɪndʒ) /


verb(mainly tr)
  1. to invite or summon (someone to do something, esp to take part in a contest)

  2. (also intr) to call (something) into question; dispute

  1. to make demands on; stimulate: the job challenges his ingenuity

  2. to order (a person) to halt and be identified or to give a password

  3. law to make formal objection to (a juror or jury)

  4. to lay claim to (attention, etc)

  5. (intr) hunting (of a hound) to cry out on first encountering the scent of a quarry

  6. to inject (an experimental animal immunized with a test substance) with disease microorganisms to test for immunity to the disease

noun
  1. a call to engage in a fight, argument, or contest

  2. a questioning of a statement or fact; a demand for justification or explanation

  1. a demanding or stimulating situation, career, object, etc

  2. a demand by a sentry, watchman, etc, for identification or a password

  3. US an assertion that a person is not entitled to vote or that a vote is invalid

  4. law a formal objection to a person selected to serve on a jury (challenge to the polls) or to the whole body of jurors (challenge to the array)

Origin of challenge

1
C13: from Old French chalenge, from Latin calumnia calumny

Derived forms of challenge

  • challengeable, adjective
  • challenger, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012