confrontation
Americannoun
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confrontations
plural
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an act of confronting.
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the state of being confronted.
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a meeting of persons face to face.
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an open conflict of opposing ideas, forces, etc.
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a bringing together of ideas, themes, etc., for comparison.
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Psychology. a technique used in group therapy, as in encounter groups, in which one is forced to recognize one's shortcomings and their possible consequences.
noun
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the act or an instance of confronting
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a situation of mutual hostility between two powers or nations without open warfare
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a state of conflict between two antagonistic forces, creeds, or ideas etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of confrontation
First recorded in 1625–35; confront + -ation; compare Medieval Latin confrontātiō, French, Middle French confrontation
Explanation
A confrontation is an angry disagreement. You might become so irritated about your upstairs neighbor's loud, awful music that a confrontation is unavoidable. Confrontation implies hostility, although like a fight, a confrontation can involve actual violence, or just a clash of words. A confrontation often refers to a military encounter involving opposing armies. This meaning became popular after the Cuban missile crisis in 1963. Before that, confrontation was used to mean "bringing two opposing parties face to face," from the Latin word confrontationem.
Vocabulary lists containing confrontation
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The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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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:
“We have no need to sit face to face with such unreliable and hostile persons who refuse to abandon their policy of confrontation while talking about dialogue,” she said in a statement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026
Construction tycoon Trump may however choose to step back from confrontation and focus on his favorite subject -- stamping his physical legacy on Washington.
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026
Voaden revealed herself to be the MP Farage had been referring to, writing on social media that she had been left "shocked and bloody angry" by the confrontation.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026
No doubt she feels judged and objectified by what must have felt like a confrontation.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026
His dinner—and thus, he suspected, his confrontation with the star—could wait.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
The Philippines, a close security partner of Australia, has been engaged in years of confrontations with China in the South China Sea.
From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026
These confrontations with the fantastic throw the woman’s static, everyday existence into sharp relief.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
It’s unclear whether similar confrontations would be resolved by the new Paramount board and, if so, what that would mean for the authority of the top executives at CBS News and CNN.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
Senior U.S. officials have responded by trying to avoid public confrontations with Beijing that could overshadow or derail plans for the summit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
Anderson was not a person who enjoyed controversy or welcomed confrontations.
From "The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights" by Russell Freedman
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
