at issue
Idioms-
In question, under discussion; also, to be decided. For example, Who will pay for the refreshments was the point at issue . [Early 1800s]
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In conflict, in disagreement, as in Physicians are still at issue over the appropriate use of hormone therapy . This usage, from legal terminology, was defined by Sir William Blackstone ( Commentaries on the Laws of England , 1768), who said that when a point is affirmed by one side and denied by the other, “they are then said to be at issue .”
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.
The rule at issue, the agency had previously concluded, would “provide critical health protections to hundreds of thousands of people living near chemical plants.”
From Salon • May 10, 2026
The state law was not directly at issue in the Supreme Court ruling, but Hasen argues the court’s reasoning could provide new legal grounds to challenge the state law as potentially unconstitutional.
From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2026
The books at issue include Mark Clifford’s biography of Jimmy Lai, the 78-year-old journalist sentenced last month to 20 years in prison for dissent.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 26, 2026
What was at issue is whether the FCC is allowed to change the rules on its own.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 19, 2026
But believing in one another was not really at issue anymore.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
