Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A state of open, often prolonged fighting; a battle or war.
- n. A state of disharmony between incompatible or antithetical persons, ideas, or interests; a clash.
- n. Psychology A psychic struggle, often unconscious, resulting from the opposition or simultaneous functioning of mutually exclusive impulses, desires, or tendencies.
- n. Opposition between characters or forces in a work of drama or fiction, especially opposition that motivates or shapes the action of the plot.
- v. To be in or come into opposition; differ.
- v. Archaic To engage in warfare.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
- n. A struggle for mastery; a striving to oppose or overcome; a battle or combat; contention; controversy; strife.
- n. 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.
Wiktionary
- n. A clash or disagreement, often violent, between two opposing groups or individuals.
- n. An incompatibility, as of two things that cannot be simultaneously fulfilled.
- v. To be at odds (with); to disagree or be incompatible
- v. To overlap (with), as in a schedule.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A striking or dashing together; violent collision.
- n. A strife for the mastery; hostile contest; battle; struggle; fighting.
- v. To strike or dash together; to meet in violent collision; to collide.
- v. To maintain a conflict; to contend; to engage in strife or opposition; to struggle.
- v. To be in opposition; to be contradictory.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war
- v. be in conflict
- v. go against, as of rules and laws
- n. a state of opposition between persons or ideas or interests
- n. a disagreement or argument about something important
- n. an open clash between two opposing groups (or individuals)
- n. opposition between two simultaneous but incompatible feelings
- n. an incompatibility of dates or events
- n. opposition in a work of drama or fiction between characters or forces (especially an opposition that motivates the development of the plot)
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Latin cōnflīctus, collision, from past participle of cōnflīgere, to strike together : com-, com- + flīgere, to strike.
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”
“Has anyone ever heard of the term "conflict of interest?”
“The belief that competition and character are in conflict is a myth perpetuated by people who prefer shortcuts over hard work.”
“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
“Simon 9:17 p.m. comment: The touchiness by what you call the conflict is my point.”
“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.”
“Petraeus offered his professional military opinion — shared by many others, including the 2006 Iraq Study Group — that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a key driver of instability in the Middle East, and that working toward a resolution to the conflict is an essential U.S. national security interest.”
Think Progress » ADL asserts Gen. Petraeus ‘erred’ in his recent congressional testimony.
““Of course, expert commenters here seem to think that restoring Ottoman control over the conflict is the solution.””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘conflict’.
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