conflict
Americanverb (used without object)
-
conflicts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
conflicted,
past participle, past
-
conflicting
present participle
noun
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conflicts
plural
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a fight, battle, or struggle, especially a prolonged struggle; strife.
-
controversy; quarrel.
conflicts between parties.
- Antonyms:
- accord
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discord of action, feeling, or effect; antagonism or opposition, as of interests or principles.
a conflict of ideas.
- Synonyms:
- opposition, contention
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a striking together; collision.
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incompatibility or interference, as of one idea, desire, event, or activity with another.
a conflict in the schedule.
-
Psychiatry. a mental struggle arising from opposing demands or impulses.
noun
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a struggle or clash between opposing forces; battle
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a state of opposition between ideas, interests, etc; disagreement or controversy
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a clash, as between two appointments made for the same time
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psychol opposition between two simultaneous but incompatible wishes or drives, sometimes leading to a state of emotional tension and thought to be responsible for neuroses
verb
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to come into opposition; clash
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to fight
Synonym Usage
See fight.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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conflictionnoun
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preconflictnoun
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self-conflictnoun
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preconflictverb (used without object)
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conflictiveadjective
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conflictoryadjective
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nonconflictiveadjective
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unconflictiveadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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conflictsimple
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conflictssimple
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have conflictedperfect
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has conflictedperfect
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am conflictingprogressive
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are conflictingprogressive
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is conflictingprogressive
-
have been conflictingperfect progressive
-
has been conflictingperfect progressive
Past
-
conflictedsimple
-
had conflictedperfect
-
was conflictingprogressive
-
were conflictingprogressive
-
had been conflictingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of conflict
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English (noun), from Latin conflīctus “a striking together,” equivalent to conflīg(ere) “to strike together, contend” ( con- con- + flīgere “to strike”) + -tus suffix of verb action; (verb) from Latin conflīctus, past participle of conflīgere, or by verb use of the noun
Explanation
A conflict is a struggle or an opposition. If you and your best friend both fall in love with the same person, you will have to find some way to resolve the conflict. Conflict comes from the Latin word for striking, but it isn't always violent. Conflict can arise from opposing ideas. If you want to turn your empty lot into a community garden but your wife envisions a shooting range, you have a conflict. If you're torn between two different desires, you're conflicted. Conflict can also be a verb. If you schedule a dentist appointment that conflicts with a meeting, you'll have to cancel one of them.
Vocabulary lists containing conflict
TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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List 7
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Essential Literary Terms
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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.
See Examples For:
The study, recently published in Family Relations, found that couples who exercised together reported better communication, more effective conflict resolution and less marital stress than couples who did not share physical activity.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
And in recent days the conflict has intensified.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
The Yemen conflict has caused a humanitarian crisis.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
The data-center conflict is a textbook public-goods problem, in which AI users have an incentive to free-ride.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Hill jumped on every chance to bend the ear of the industrialists, explaining why promotion of blacks to foremen would reduce conflict and increase efficiency.
From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield
In the past, American troops were mobilised from Okinawa to participate in conflicts such as the 1990 Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
Is this evidence that maybe the court is finally doing the thing we’ve asked it to do, which is police its own conflicts?
From Slate ● Oct. 5, 2026
He reportedly has chosen to own shares in some 27 individual companies when index funds and other diversified investments would avoid these conflicts entirely.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
That has left them vulnerable to strains from unplanned outages, natural disasters or conflicts.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
So the agencies, encouraged by the success of that early round of resettlement, brought in other refugees—survivors of the conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo, and oppressed minorities from the former Soviet Union.
From "Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference" by Warren St. John
The author himself was conflicted about her, writing Cathy as a dangerous beauty incapable of empathy in his book, yet expressing how dear she was to him in letters to his editor, Pascal Covici.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2026
Activity that conflicted between the two brain regions quickly disappeared, while activity shared by both areas lasted longer.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 24, 2026
Photo make-believe: I’m conflicted about the new suite of Apple Intelligence photo-editing tools.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
The two bills originally conflicted with one another.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
Dr. Gazzaley professes to be a little conflicted by what he’s seen.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
Government research suggests that around two-thirds of parents with young children feel overwhelmed by the amount of parenting information available and struggle with conflicting advice, with many turning to social media for support.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
The uncertain status of TPS has led to sometime conflicting actions by government agencies or employers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
The geopolitics of the Horn of Africa are fiendishly complex, with shifting alliances and the involvement of many outside actors with conflicting interests.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
Oil prices have been volatile as traders react to conflicting headlines about the state of U.S.-Iran negotiations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
He felt such a raging storm of conflicting emotions, he couldn’t identify any of them.
From "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner
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.
