controversial.

Causing strong public or informed disagreement.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• controversial proposal
• controversial interpretation

On the page

The proposed boundary remains controversial among historians.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Comparative more controversial; superlative most controversial when comparison is meaningful. 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: analysis, evaluation. Commonness: moderately common.