contest.

1. A competition in which participants seek a winning result or position.

2. To challenge the validity, correctness or acceptability of a claim or decision.

3. To compete for a position, opportunity or result.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• electoral contest
• competitive contest

On the page

The electoral contest involved competing proposals as well as efforts to gain votes.

The contest’s rules specified the result being sought before the participants began.

Usage notes

Primary category: analysis / argumentation / evidence. Forms: Singular contest; plural contests. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: counterevidence assessment, argument critique, qualified assertion, formal disagreement. Disciplines: argumentation, research interpretation, social analysis. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: contests.