different between contest vs strife

English

Etymology

From French contester, from Old French, from Latin contestor (“to call to witness”).

Pronunciation

Noun

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?n.t?st/
• (US) enPR: k?n't?st, IPA^(key): /?k?n.t?st/
• Rhymes: -?nt?st

Verb

• (UK, US) enPR: k?nt?st', IPA^(key): /k?n?t?st/
• Rhymes: -?st

Noun

contest (countable and uncountable, plural contests)

1. (uncountable) Controversy; debate.

   Synonyms: controversy, debate, discussion

2. (uncountable) Struggle for superiority; combat.

   Synonyms: battle, combat, fight

3. (countable) A competition.

   Synonyms: competition, pageant

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

contest (third-person singular simple present contests, present participle contesting, simple past and past participle contested)

1. (intransitive) To contend.

   Synonyms: compete, contend, go in for

   • 1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth

     As for the difficulty or obscurity of an argument, that does but add to the pleasure.of contesting with it when there are hopes of victory

2. (transitive) To call into question; to oppose.

   Synonyms: call into question, oppose

   Antonym: support

   • 1848, John Daniel Morell, Historical and Critical View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Century

     Few philosophical aphorisms have been more frequently repeated, few more contested than this.

3. (transitive) To strive earnestly to hold or maintain; to struggle to defend.

4. (law) To make a subject of litigation; to defend, as a suit; to dispute or resist, as a claim, by course of law.

   Synonym: controvert

Translations

Anagrams

• Consett, Cottens

English

Etymology

From Middle English strif, stryf, striffe, from Old French estrif, noun derived from estriver, from Frankish *str?ban; compare Dutch strijven. More at strive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?a?f/
• Rhymes: -a?f

Noun

strife (countable and uncountable, plural strifes)

1. Striving; earnest endeavor; hard work.
2. Exertion or contention for superiority, either by physical or intellectual means.
   • 1595: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

     From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
     A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
     Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
     Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
3. Bitter conflict, sometimes violent.

   Synonyms: altercation, contention, discord, wrangle

   • 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xvii:

     A few observations about the interpretation of vows or pledges may not be out of place here. Interpretation of pledges has been a fruitful source of strife all the world over. No matter how explicit the pledge, people will turn and twist the text to suit their own purposes.

4. (colloquial) A trouble of any kind.
5. (obsolete) That which is contended against; occasion of contest.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene^[1]:

     He ?pide lamenting her unlucky ?trife,

Derived terms

• strifeful
• strifeless
• strife-ridden
• trouble and strife

Related terms

• strive

Translations

References

• strife in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• Fister, firest, firste, fister, freits, refits, resift, rifest, sifter