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English: Contention vs Competition usage | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4027 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes  Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 1 of 3 16 February 2014 at 5:26pm | IP Logged |
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I am trying to figure out the difference between Contention and Competition.
Contest and Competition were listed as synonyms under the thesaurus section at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/contention An example sentence for contention: "The teams were in fierce contention for first place" Contest, and Competition do not really work here (I cant explain why, other than it sounds wrong). However the verb forms seem ok: "The teams were competing fiercely for first place". "The teams were contesting fiercely for first place". So, what is the difference between Contention, Competition, and Contest? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5912 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 3 16 February 2014 at 9:03pm | IP Logged |
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That's a good question! I've never realized just how closely related these words are.
I think that the word contention is more likely to be used in the context of a verbal or intellectual competition, such as an argument, or a debate, and it can also be used to mean a statement, especially of disagreement, made in such a situation. Competition may be more likely to be used to refer to a sporting event or a contest in which prizes are awarded. They are very close however, and in some cases could probably be used interchangeably. "The teams were competing fiercely for first place". "The teams were contesting fiercely for first place". The first sentence feels more natural here. The second one isn't wrong; the first one sounds better to me, though. Here I think your word choice would depend on context. Contest mean both a competition and a contention. CONtest is a noun meaning rivalry, or lottery, while conTEST as a verb means to argue or protest a point. There may be different pronunciation, but this is the one I know. The difference here depends on the stressed syllable. Edited by meramarina on 16 February 2014 at 9:07pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| chokofingrz Pentaglot Senior Member England Joined 5134 days ago 241 posts - 430 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Japanese, Catalan, Luxembourgish | Message 3 of 3 16 February 2014 at 9:27pm | IP Logged |
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You contest something.
You compete FOR something. Or you can just compete. That's one difference. On a more pragmatic level, being in contention for something primarily connotes the possibility of winning, while being in competition also connotes a more concrete intent to win. Try taking the word 'fierce' out of your example: - Two teams are in contention for first place. (i.e. 2 out of 8 can win it) - Two teams are in competition for first place. (i.e. 2 out of 8 are fighting to win it) That's how I see it. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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