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
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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Freak the Mighty
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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 shift in tone marks a turning point following nearly two years of fierce confrontation over UniCredit's attempt to take control of the German bank.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
The Indian journalist Varghese George describes the BJP’s confrontation with the cockroach protesters as a face-off between India’s older “WhatsApp generation” and the “Instagram generation.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Well, that is a conundrum that Mrs. Waters, in the interest of avoiding confrontation with her life’s cognitive dissonance, should probably learn to live with.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
US singer Chris Brown has pleaded guilty to affray after a confrontation at a London nightclub in 2023.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
This was toeing the line of confrontation land, and I was completely out of my element.
From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon
A graduation photo ended Ipswich’s playoff run, sparking outrage, confrontations and a ‘CSI-level investigation.’
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
Other former workers claim producers manufactured confrontations between cast members.
From BBC ● May 27, 2026
In Los Angeles, a former MTV personality is running a mayoral campaign built around TMZ confrontations.
From Salon ● May 18, 2026
Overall, the 12 rules emphasized safety, urging Marines to be reasonable, to de-escalate tensions and to avoid confrontations with individuals who posed no threat.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026
There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces.
From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
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.
