From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcontentiouscon‧ten‧tious /kənˈtenʃəs/ ●○○ adjective 1 DISAGREEcausing a lot of argument and disagreement between people SYN controversialcontentious issue/area/subject etc Animal welfare did not become a contentious issue until the late 1970s.2 ARGUEsomeone who is contentious often argues with people SYN argumentative —contentiously adverb
Examples from the Corpus
contentious• In liquor he became sullen and contentious.• One particularly contentious area in the field of health and safety is the valuation of human life itself.• It seems reasonable to suppose that they should be, if the contentious area of imaginative literature is ruled out.• Even a decade ago, that would have been a contentious assertion.• the contentious issue of arms sales to non-democratic countries• Logging on public lands is a contentious issue.• With so much hype surrounding the Internet and its potential for commercial opportunities, market research has been a contentious issue.• He was intimately involved with many of the most contentious issues in the three years of design and construction.• Abortion has always been a contentious subject.contentious issue/area/subject etc• Creating an economic asset in the form of a parental dividend would obviously up the ante in these kinds of contentious issues.• Michael Scott describes the practical proposals put forward in a new report on this contentious issue.• Smog and acid rain, water pollution and sewage disposal, dams and river-flows will become ever more contentious issues.• The most contentious issue in the early days of the second session was the collegiality of bishops.• One particularly contentious area in the field of health and safety is the valuation of human life itself.• He was intimately involved with many of the most contentious issues in the three years of design and construction.• Another contentious issue is whether the revisions themselves are legal since they were passed without notification to the opposition.• UDCs: gainers and losers One of the most contentious issues surrounding UDCs is that of gainers and losers. 