argumentative
Americanadjective
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fond of or given to argument and dispute; disputatious; contentious.
The law students were an unusually argumentative group.
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of or characterized by argument; controversial.
an argumentative attitude toward political issues.
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Law. arguing or containing arguments suggesting that a certain fact tends toward a certain conclusion.
adjective
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given to arguing; contentious
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characterized by argument; controversial
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of argumentative
Explanation
If you're argumentative, you have a tendency to quarrel or squabble. An argumentative classmate always finds a reason to disagree with the teacher's viewpoint. You'd probably enjoy being on a debate team if you're naturally argumentative. Argumentative people always seem to come up with an argument or difference of opinion. When it first appeared in the 15th century, argumentative simply described anything having to do with arguments, from the Latin root arguere, "make clear, make known, or demonstrate." By the 1660s, it had also come to mean "fond of arguing."
Vocabulary lists containing argumentative
Common Core Grades 7–8, List 1
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Common Core Grade 6, List 1
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Common Core Grades 9–10, List 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
South Hall is known as one of Eastern’s “dump-off” blocks, where they send rabble-rousers, the outspoken, argumentative prisoners, the ones who have most fallen out of favor with the guards.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
Adams was a balding curmudgeon from Massachusetts—brainy, argumentative and physically ill-favored.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Prosecutor Peter Joyce KC told the trial the atmosphere in The Crown Inn had been "menacing, threatening, argumentative and disputing" because of Gothard's behaviour.
From BBC ● May 7, 2026
“Heartbreak House: A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes,” an argumentative state-of-the-nation play with eccentrically drawn characters of Chekhovian complexity, represents the pinnacle of the playwright’s achievement in this genre.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2024
He sat glumly through the rest of the hearing, holding his head, which I found even more disheartening than when he was argumentative and distraught.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
