contest
Americannoun
-
a race, conflict, or other competition between rivals, as for a prize.
- Synonyms:
- game, tourney, tournament, match, rivalry, contention
-
struggle for victory or superiority.
-
vigorous or bitter conflict in argument; dispute; controversy.
Their marriage was marred by perpetual contest.
- Synonyms:
- opposition, disagreement, difference, clash, altercation, antagonism, discord, strife
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
-
a formal game or match in which two or more people, teams, etc, compete and attempt to win
-
a struggle for victory between opposing forces or interests
verb
-
(tr) to try to disprove; call in question
-
to fight, dispute, or contend (with)
contest an election
Synonym Usage
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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contestablenessnoun
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contestationnoun
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contesternoun
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precontestnoun
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subcontestnoun
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supercontestnoun
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recontestverb
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precontestverb (used with object)
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supercontestverb (used with object)
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contestableadjective
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uncontestableadjective
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contestablyadverb
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contestinglyadverb
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uncontestablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
contestsimple
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contestssimple
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have contestedperfect
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has contestedperfect
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am contestingprogressive
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are contestingprogressive
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is contestingprogressive
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have been contestingperfect progressive
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has been contestingperfect progressive
Past
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contestedsimple
-
had contestedperfect
-
was contestingprogressive
-
were contestingprogressive
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had been contestingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of contest
First recorded in 1595–1605; (verb) from Latin contestāri “to call to witness (in a lawsuit),” equivalent to con- con- + testārī “to testify, ” derivative of testis witness; the noun is derivative of the verb, or is from French conteste
Explanation
A contest is a struggle to determine who's tops –- you might wrestle an alligator in a contest of brute strength versus strategy. You can also enter a contest — a yodeling contest or a cake-decorating contest, depending on your talents. If you're being sued and you respond to the court order saying "no contest," you're saying you're not going to put up a fight. When you put the accent on the second syllable, contest becomes a verb, and it means to dispute something. You lost the election for class president, but you think there was something fishy going on at the ballot box, so you contest the results and ask for a recount.
Vocabulary lists containing contest
Beowulf vocabulary
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Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address (1801)
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Orbiting Jupiter
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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:
That is the popular constitutional contest the whistles, warnings, carpools, legal observers, and barricades made visible.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
In response, Jefferson started a newspaper contest to elicit plans for what became the Capitol, designed by Dr. William Thornton, the amateur architect who won the contest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
In October 2023, Truelove pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of destruction of property in Virginia and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
"This time around everyone agrees that the race is incredibly important for the future of the UN, but the contest itself has been quite cautious," he added.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
I prepare to jump into a roast contest when a roar suddenly sounds from the forest in front of us—and I think I see a huge form lumbering toward us.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
“However,” it said, “aiming to return to a status where the outcomes of most contests are known by the end of Election Week is a realistic goal.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
Rather than a shootout or penalty kicks, the championship was decided by a single moment of quality in one of the tournament’s tightest contests.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
The formal declaration of Fujimori's win brings one of Peru's tightest leadership contests of all time to a close and ushers in the Andean nation's ninth president in a decade.
From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026
Germans do it only during international sporting contests.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
They had held mini contests in their classrooms and had selected the winners of those.
From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg
Most forfeiture targets have none of those advantages, which is why the overwhelming majority of forfeitures are never contested at all.
From Slate ● Jul. 28, 2026
Its construction and design, however, were hotly contested things, as I learned from Brian Jay Jones’s “The Capitol: The Surprising Biography of an American Building.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Friedkin’s movie shifted people’s perceptions about fear and played with longstanding ideas about the nuclear family and religious ideology, themes that were starting to be contested and debated as America moved further from ’50s-era sterility.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Despite neo-Nazis frequently flocking to the address, its last private owner, Gerlinde Pommer, vetoed any transformation of the house and contested its expropriation by the state until the very end.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
A couple months ago, Lisa Edwards, over by Cow Creek, got her claim contested by a neighbor.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
That history is why contesting the constitutional allocation of public safety cannot mean giving private people authority to govern vulnerable people.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
“Waymo reviews all received citations and may engage with the court to address and resolve them, including contesting cases on their merit if we believe they were issued erroneously,” a company spokesman said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and Restore Britain have all ruled out contesting the seat - leaving the prospect of Farage facing novelty candidates like Count Binface.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
Washington and Tehran have been contesting some of the deal’s finer points, including whether passage through the key waterway will be free from tolls.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 16, 2026
When two males are contesting the alpha position, they usually do so by forming extensive coalitions of supporters, both male and female, from within the group.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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.
