confrontation
Americannoun
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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
- confrontational adjective
- nonconfrontation noun
- reconfrontation noun
Etymology
Origin of confrontation
First recorded in 1625–35; confront + -ation; compare Medieval Latin confrontātiō, French, Middle French confrontation
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 prospect of a major confrontation between the Lebanese state and Hezbollah has also long been a major concern, reawakening fears of a descent back into civil war.
From BBC
As Sam Sacks writes of this posthumously published collection of short stories, “Segal never loses her equipoise, or her sense of humor, in these most extreme confrontations with mortality.”
The confrontation outside the federal Metropolitan Detention Center came after hours of peaceful “No Kings” demonstrations in downtown Los Angeles and across the county.
From Los Angeles Times
The fatal confrontation reportedly began with disturbances outside a conference at Sciences Po, the highly-regarded French political science institute.
From Salon
That approach lowers the stakes of confrontation but reinforces the idea that the primary goal is expression rather than persuasion.
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.
