Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To raise arguments against; voice opposition to.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To dispute; oppose by argument; contend against in discussion; deny and attempt to disprove or confute: as, to controvert opinions or principles; to controvert the justness of a conclusion.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make matter of controversy; to dispute or oppose by reasoning; to contend against in words or writings; to contest; to debate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To dispute or argue using reason.
  • verb intransitive To be involved or engaged in controversy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb prove to be false or incorrect
  • verb be resistant to

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Back-formation from controversy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin as if *controvertere, assumed from controversus, from contro- ("against") + vertere ("to turn").

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Examples

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  • To raise arguments against; voice opposition to. Deny the truth of.

    May 28, 2009