From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishaltercational‧ter‧ca‧tion /ˌɔːltəˈkeɪʃən $ ˌɒːltər-/ noun [countable] formalARGUE a short noisy argument They became involved in an altercation.
Examples from the Corpus
altercation• There was a brief altercation and someone called the police.• He was engaged in some sort of altercation with the driver.• Well, the only altercation I remember having with him was when I was very little, five or six.• She would run and hide as her parents' altercations so often got out of hand with plates crashing and books thrown.• And perhaps most interestingly, can MacLean stay away from the physical altercations that have popped up recently?• The frustration he caused her was the keynote of every one-sided altercation.• The altercation concluded with Bugel tossing Brown from the session.Origin altercation (1300-1400) French Latin altercatio, from altercari “to quarrel” 