Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To put forth reasons for or against; debate.
  • intransitive verb To attempt to prove by reasoning; maintain or contend.
  • intransitive verb To give evidence of; indicate.
  • intransitive verb To persuade or influence (another), as by presenting reasons.
  • intransitive verb To put forth reasons for or against something.
  • intransitive verb To engage in a quarrel; dispute.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To bring forward reasons to support or to overthrow a proposition, an opinion, or a measure; use arguments; reason: as, A argues in favor of a measure, B argues against it.
  • To contend in argument; dispute: as, you may argue with your friend a week without convincing him.
  • To debate or discuss; treat by reasoning; state the reasons for or against: as, the counsel argued the cause before the Supreme Court; the cause was well argued.
  • To evince; render inferable or deducible; show; imply: as, the order visible in the universe argues a divine cause.
  • To affect in any way by argument; induce a change in the mind of, or in regard to, by persuasion or reasoning: as, to argue one out of his purpose; to argue away a false impression.
  • 4. To accuse or charge; impeach or convict: used with of.
  • Synonyms Argue, Dispute, Debate, Discuss, plead, expostulate, remonstrate. To argue is to defend one's opinion, or to exhibit reasons or proofs in favor of some assertion or principle; it implies a process of detailed proof by one or more persons. To dispute may be to call in question the statements or arguments of an opposing party: as, to dispute about an award. It often means the alternate giving of reasons, especially by two persons. It is often applied to mere bickering, and is in general less dignified than the other words. To debate is to interchange arguments in a somewhat formal manner, as in debating societies and legislative bodies. To discuss is, by derivation, to shake or knock a subject to pieces in order to find the truth, or the best thing to be done. A debate, therefore, may be viewed as a discussion, or a discussion as a debate. Strictly, a discussion is an amicable presentation of opinions, not limited, like the others, to affirmative and negative sides of a proposition, and with the expectation on the part of all that the conclusion will be the adoption of no one person's opinion or plan unmodified. To argue a point, to dispute a position, to dispute with a neighbor, to debate a motion, to discuss a subject or a plan.

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

  • transitive verb To debate or discuss; to treat by reasoning
  • transitive verb To prove or evince; too manifest or exhibit by inference, deduction, or reasoning.
  • transitive verb To persuade by reasons.
  • transitive verb obsolete To blame; to accuse; to charge with.
  • intransitive verb To invent and offer reasons to support or overthrow a proposition, opinion, or measure; to use arguments; to reason.
  • intransitive verb To contend in argument; to dispute; to reason; -- followed by with.

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

  • verb obsolete To prove.
  • verb To shows grounds for concluding (that); to indicate, imply.
  • verb intransitive To debate, disagree, or discuss opposing or differing viewpoints.
  • verb intransitive To have an argument, a quarrel.
  • verb transitive To present (a viewpoint or an argument therefor).

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

  • verb have an argument about something
  • verb give evidence of
  • verb present reasons and arguments

Etymologies

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

[Middle English arguen, from Old French arguer, from Latin argūtāre, to babble, chatter, frequentative of arguere, to make clear; see arg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French arguer, from Latin arguere ("to declare, show, prove, make clear, reprove, accuse"), probably connected with Ancient Greek ἀργός (argos, "white, bright, etc."); see argent, and compare declare ("literally to make clear").

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Examples

  • Critics of the term argue that associating the religion of Islam with fascism is offensive and inaccurate-well, perhaps those critics, finding the term offensive and inaccurate, might do something about modifying the behavior leading to the use of the term. otherwise, there is a phrase about the shoe and if it fits that springs to mind.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Islamofascism: 2007

  • Critics of the term argue that associating the religion of Islam with fascism is offensive and inaccurate.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Islamofascism: 2007

  • Even those who believe in the existence of this term argue that there is a "strong sense" (meaning genuine) critical thinking to be distinguished from a "weak sense" version, but I don't think (contra Paul and others) there are good, universally recognized warrants, standards, or criteria to draw those distinctions, especially in all the fields it could potentially encompass.

    Serendip's Exchange - 2009

  • From this, we can say that there are other values that can potentially override democracy in creating institutions for a just government — one of which, I would argue, is the value of discussion, whereby no policy is made without all interested parties saying their peace, and where those that govern are forced to make at least some justification to their detractors.

    Matthew Yglesias » A Flawed Stimulus is Better than No Stimulus 2009

  • I think what you can argue is we're stuck in neutral.

    Obama Faces A New Political Reality 2010

  • A too-high price point compared to the competition, a continued emphasis on Blu-Ray and HD when few consumers are embracing the technology, the lack of several truly mass market franchises (MGS4, you could argue, is one, but there's precious little else).

    Je Regrette SVGL 2009

  • I think what you can argue is we're stuck in neutral.

    Video: President Obama's Post-Election Press Conference 2010

  • And in neither case does that wage rate translate to the 'Living Wage' for a family of four that the pundits argue is the purpose of the minimum wage.

    Gary Becker on the Minimum Wage, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • I think what you can argue is we're stuck in neutral.

    Obama Faces A New Political Reality 2010

  • I think what you can argue is we're stuck in neutral.

    Obama Faces A New Political Reality 2010

Comments

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  • argue- is that clear?? such as in argent=silver: the argentine connection is clear once seen: that's the point of ARGuement: get the litharge (lead) out: PIE ROOT ARG-

    January 14, 2007

  • All sides are faulty

    Anything can be argued

    That's an example...

    November 8, 2007