Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a polemical manner; controversially; disputatively; in polemic discourse or argument; in the manner of polemics.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a polemical manner.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb involving controversy

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Truffaut used the term polemically to denigrate the then dominant mode of filmmaking that emphasized the adaptation of great works of literature to the screen.

    Philosophy of Film Wartenberg, Thomas 2008

  • While Truffaut introduced the term polemically to support a new style of filmmaking, subsequent theorists have tended to ignore the context of his remarks.

    Philosophy of Film Wartenberg, Thomas 2008

  • Passing over the question of whether the rhetorical criticism of the 1970s and early 1980s amounted essentially to a sceptical inversion of the New Criticism's conception of faith as technique, let me briefly (and once again polemically) sketch out postmodernity's more pointed objections to the New Critics 'ideal of Literature as a secular Scripture whose prosodic and narrative balance were to defend its essentially "fallen" readers against the impingements of a dis/harmonious world.

    Bringing About the Past 1997

  • I don’t mean either of those terms polemically; sometimes their anti-conservative positions are the good part of their views, and sometimes they are a really rotten part of their views.

    Semantic quibbles #3: Conservatism 2008

  • A final characteristic that makes an overview of Joseph Ratzinger's theology difficult is the fact that his theology is a dialogical theology through and through -- a theology that develops not only through a listening to what the sources have to say, but also through a critical conversation with other perspectives, a conversation that is not afraid to identify errors and sometimes to argue quite polemically.

    "Key Aspects of the Theology of Professor Joseph Ratzinger" 2009

  • In one self-portrait, we see him in a younger incarnation, boldly, almost polemically revealing, under his broad hat, the bald pate that he has tastefully concealed in the Norton Simon image.

    A Tour de Force, Honest and Engaging James Gardner 2011

  • You understand that Adam's oncologist and anesthesiologist are deeply repressed—as the writer's doctors may well have been in real life—but they're written and played monotonously, almost polemically, to sell the point.

    '50/50': Cheerful Illness Tale, With Relapses Joe Morgenstern 2011

  • In their thoughtful and provocative essay, Allenby and Sarewitz make some nice observations eg, that computer-search tech represents "congealed cognition", speculate amusingly-but-seriously about "cyborg insects" and "telepathic helmets", and polemically overstate our general ignorance.

    Et cetera: non-fiction choice – reviews 2011

  • And as Malcolm Gladwell polemically argued in Outliers, his book about how some people become megastars, everyone who becomes a megastar has some.

    Vanessa Richmond: Willow Smith and America's Dirty Little Fame Secret Vanessa Richmond 2010

  • A final characteristic that makes an overview of Joseph Ratzinger's theology difficult is the fact that his theology is a dialogical theology through and through -- a theology that develops not only through a listening to what the sources have to say, but also through a critical conversation with other perspectives, a conversation that is not afraid to identify errors and sometimes to argue quite polemically.

    Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog: 2009

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