confront
Americanverb (used with object)
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confronts,
present (3rd person singular)
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confronted,
past participle, past
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confronting
present participle
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to face in hostility or defiance; oppose.
The feuding factions confronted one another.
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to present for acknowledgment, contradiction, etc.; set face to face.
They confronted him with evidence of his crime.
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to face and deal with boldly or directly.
The city refuses to confront the real reason for the housing shortage.
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to stand or come in front of; stand or meet facing.
The two long-separated brothers confronted each other speechlessly.
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to be in one's way.
the numerous obstacles that still confronted him.
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to bring together for examination or comparison.
verb
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(usually foll by with) to present or face (with something), esp in order to accuse or criticize
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to face boldly; oppose in hostility
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to be face to face with; be in front of
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to bring together for comparison
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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confrontsimple
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confrontssimple
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have confrontedperfect
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has confrontedperfect
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am confrontingprogressive
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are confrontingprogressive
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is confrontingprogressive
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have been confrontingperfect progressive
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has been confrontingperfect progressive
Past
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confrontedsimple
-
had confrontedperfect
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was confrontingprogressive
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were confrontingprogressive
-
had been confrontingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of confront
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Medieval Latin confrontārī, equivalent to Latin con-, variant of intensive prefix com- + -frontārī, derivative of Latin frōns (stem front- ) “forehead”; see origin at con-, front
Explanation
Confront means either to face a situation that makes you uncomfortable, or to say something to someone about something they've done that bothers you. Rather than letting things go, when people are rude to you you should confront them. Confront derives from the Latin con- "with" and -front "front." You can confront a sad truth, you can confront a person by calling them on their behavior, you can confront someone with the fact that they have terrible breath. You can be confronted, too—on the trip through the mountains, we were confronted by the impassibility of the road.
Vocabulary lists containing confront
The Bill of Rights
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"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker
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Twelve Days in May
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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:
I understood that it was not culturally acceptable in Russia to confront an older person of authority, so I steeled myself.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
This way, he doesn’t have to confront his brother about paying but you also have some control over how much you are spending on these meals.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
It took her 18 years to fully confront Apted over his questioning.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
There is a good chance that even if Sara did confront Scott, he’ll deny at least some of it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
She headed straight for Hans’s apartment to confront him.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
These are problems farmer Ashish Gupta confronts daily on his smallholding in India's Himachal Pradesh, which he farms as part of a cooperative.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
Carl Wilson reviews “Lost Weekend” and the ways it confronts grief, new love, and sudden fame.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
There he confronts not the harsh physical challenges of the prior books—“Heaven and Hell” and “The Sorrow of Angels”—but adult problems of love and responsibility.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
The Hades sequence gets much of its emotional weight from Page, as Sinon confronts Odysseus with the lie that sent him to his death.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
What confronts us, now the excitement’s over, is our own failure.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
A BBC team who came to a Greggs to talk to staff and customers about shoplifting were confronted by thieves openly stealing in front of them.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Additionally, Sheeran confronted scrutiny over his largely apolitical public presence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
Once they moved in, they were confronted with the challenge of living in an old house with high-tech amenities, like smart home technology controlled by an app, or how to open the entry gate.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
The revolt reached a crescendo when correspondent Scott Pelley confronted Bilton at his first staff meeting, accusing Weiss of “murdering” the show.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
The problems and pressures faced by historic societies are very different from those that confronted peoples in the Paleolithic or Neolithic eras.
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
“I don’t see evidence that leaders, experts, and communities are confronting the challenges adequately,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
Rather than having academic teams guess which tools public health organizations need, agencies confronting real-world problems can submit requests directly to Resilient Shield.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
Roger Cook, the state's premier, described the news as a "very confronting situation".
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
Even after children reach adulthood, parents may continue to see them as needing protection, rather than as capable of confronting difficult truths.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
Finally the British came upon Lexington Common and the two sides met face-to-face: several hundred British soldiers confronting less than a hundred militia.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
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.
