argument

argument 1 proof, *reason, ground

Analogous words: proving, demonstrating or demonstration (see corresponding verbs at PROVE): disproving or disproof, refuting or refutation, rebutting or rebuttal (see corresponding verbs at DISPROVE)

2 Argument, dispute, controversy mean a vigorous and often heated discussion of a moot question.

Argument usually stresses the appeal to the mind and the use of evidence and reasoning to support one’s claims; it implies the hope of each side to prove its case and to convince its opponents

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if Winthrop had not by force of argument . . . obtained the lifting of duties from goods sent to England . . . the Boston colony would have been bankrupt— Repplier

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In informal use it may be indistinguishable from dispute

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obeying orders without argument

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Dispute fundamentally implies the contradiction of something maintained by another and therefore a challenge to argument

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the decrees of a dictator are not subject to dispute

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When applied to a verbal contention, dispute suggests not only a challenger and one challenged but an effort on the part of each to get the upper hand. Hence it often implies more or less anger or disturbance of the peace

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a dispute begun in jest . . . is continued by the desire of conquest, till vanity kindles into rage, and opposition rankles into enmity— Johnson

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“You dislike an argument, and want to silence this. ” “Perhaps I do. Arguments are too much like disputes"—Austen

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Controversy emphasizes a profound difference of opinion not so often between persons as between parties; the term is applied chiefly to debates over issues of importance or of widespread interest involving two or more religions, governments, schools of thought, or political parties and carried on mainly by writings addressed to the public or by speeches on public platforms

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the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy

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when a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest— Hazlitt

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Analogous words: *argumentation, disputation, debate: controverting, refuting, rebutting (see DISPROVE): contention, dissension (see DISCORD)

3 theme, *subject, matter, subject matter, topic, text, motive, motif, leitmotiv