Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A state of open, often prolonged fighting; a battle or war.
- noun A state of disagreement or disharmony between persons or ideas; a clash.
- noun Psychology An emotional or mental disturbance resulting from the opposition or simultaneous functioning of mutually exclusive impulses, desires, or tendencies.
- noun Opposition between characters or forces in a work of drama or fiction, especially when motivating or shaping the action of the plot.
- intransitive verb To be in or come into opposition; differ.
- intransitive verb Archaic To engage in warfare.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To strike or dash together; meet in opposition; come together violently.
- To contend; fight; strive; struggle.
- To be in opposition; be contrary or at variance: as, the evidence given by the second witness conflicted with that given by the first.
- noun A struggle for mastery; a striving to oppose or overcome; a battle or combat; contention; controversy; strife.
- noun Discord of action, feeling, or effect; antagonism, as of interests or principles; counteraction, as of causes, laws, or agencies of any kind; opposing action or tendency; opposition; collision: as, a conflict of the elements, or between right and wrong.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A striking or dashing together; violent collision.
- noun A strife for the mastery; hostile contest; battle; struggle; fighting.
- noun that branch of jurisprudence which deals with individual litigation claimed to be subject to the conflicting laws of two or more states or nations; -- often used as synonymous with
Private international law . - intransitive verb To strike or dash together; to meet in violent collision; to collide.
- intransitive verb To maintain a conflict; to contend; to engage in strife or opposition; to struggle.
- intransitive verb To be in opposition; to be contradictory.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
clash ordisagreement , oftenviolent , between twoopposing groups orindividuals . - noun An
incompatibility , as of two things that cannot besimultaneously fulfilled . - verb intransitive To be
at odds (with); todisagree or beincompatible - verb intransitive To
overlap (with), as in aschedule .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war
- verb be in conflict
- verb go against, as of rules and laws
- noun a state of opposition between persons or ideas or interests
- noun a disagreement or argument about something important
- noun an open clash between two opposing groups (or individuals)
- noun opposition between two simultaneous but incompatible feelings
- noun an incompatibility of dates or events
- noun opposition in a work of drama or fiction between characters or forces (especially an opposition that motivates the development of the plot)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word conflict.
Examples
-
For a century the German rule was nominal, but with the outbreak of the conflict in the eleventh century between king and pope over the question of which one should invest the bishops with their authority (known as the _investiture conflict_, 1075-1122), Pope Gregory
The History of Education; educational practice and progress considered as a phase of the development and spread of western civilization Ellwood Patterson Cubberley 1904
-
Has anyone ever heard of the term "conflict of interest?"
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Head-Roc 2011
-
The belief that competition and character are in conflict is a myth perpetuated by people who prefer shortcuts over hard work.
Lisa Earle McLeod: Why Instilling Character Isn't In Conflict With Encouraging Competition Lisa Earle McLeod 2010
-
The main conflict is set up pretty early, but again, it seems to get off track and degenerate into lots of minor conflicts.
Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » Think Like an Editor 2009
-
The belief that competition and character are in conflict is a myth perpetuated by people who prefer shortcuts over hard work.
Lisa Earle McLeod: Why Instilling Character Isn't In Conflict With Encouraging Competition Lisa Earle McLeod 2010
-
Simon 9:17 p.m. comment: The touchiness by what you call the conflict is my point.
Bloggingheads! Ann Althouse 2007
-
Simon 9:17 p.m. comment: The touchiness by what you call the conflict is my point.
Bloggingheads! Ann Althouse 2007
-
The main conflict, the political conflict, is not between the Opposition and the powers that be, but between those powers and the citizens.
-
We have been in conflict from the time we entered into Confederation.
-
The other party to this conflict is the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas.
-
And we were not abstract algorithms or “conflict entrepreneurs” (another useful phrase from Rose-Stockwell’s book, describing people who create or stoke chaos online in order to boost their own profiles).
Jezebel and the Question of Women’s Anger Condé Nast 2023
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.