contest
Americannoun
-
contests
plural
-
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)
-
contests,
present (3rd person singular)
-
contested,
past participle, past
-
contesting
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
contests,
present (3rd person singular)
-
contested,
past participle, past
-
contesting
present participle
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
-
contesternoun
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precontestnoun
-
subcontestnoun
-
supercontestnoun
-
recontestverb
-
precontestverb (used with object)
-
supercontestverb (used with object)
-
contestableadjective
-
uncontestableadjective
-
contestablyadverb
-
contestinglyadverb
-
uncontestablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
contestsimple
-
contestssimple
-
have contestedperfect
-
has contestedperfect
-
am contestingprogressive
-
are contestingprogressive
-
is contestingprogressive
-
have been contestingperfect progressive
-
has been contestingperfect progressive
Past
-
contestedsimple
-
had contestedperfect
-
was contestingprogressive
-
were contestingprogressive
-
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:
When Lu isn’t “wreaking havoc on the dinner table,” you can find her “screaming at her reflection in the mirror,” the contest website said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
Lu, who has protuberant light brown eyes, small black ears and a floppy tongue, loves to snuggle with her four-legged foster siblings and stretch out in the sun, according to the contest website.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
The Justice Department last year fired its pardon attorney after she objected to restoring the gun rights of actor Mel Gibson, who pleaded no contest in 2011 to a misdemeanor battery charge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Pug tops podium at Word’s Ugliest Dog contest…
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026
Of course he hadn’t won a contest all those years in a row.
From "Caterpillar Summer" by Gillian McDunn
Palm Beach County voting records cited by US media show Trump requested a ballot in late July and returned it last week for the contests in his adopted home state.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
Nick the Incredible Flying Brick, whose real name is Nick Delves, has previously stood for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party in 13 parliamentary contests.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
She is already looking beyond Tuesday’s contests, she said later, setting an aspirational target: 10 DSA-aligned candidates holding House seats next year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Kolodny also emphasized that it’s politically savvy for industry groups to support the re-election of incumbents in safe seats, rather than just focusing on the relatively few of the House’s 435 contests that are competitive.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
Bobby won a series of contests against weaker players, but as he progressed up the tournament ladder, he confronted stiffer opposition and started to lose.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by the contested islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
Yabloko has not won Duma seats since 2003 but has contested every election since.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
At the heart of the fight is an essential, hotly contested question: Is social media addiction even real?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
They bear the abrasion of files handled, claims contested and Jewish allegiance translated from words into work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
But the recognition that these were the competing options, the contested versions, if you will, of what the core legacy of the American Revolution truly meant, first became visible in the summer of 1790.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
“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
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
Labour, the Conservatives, the Lib Dems, the Green Party and Restore Britain have all ruled out contesting the seat.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 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.
