Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To write or deliver an argument; engage in disputation or controversy.

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

  • verb intransitive To engage in argument.

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

  • verb engage in a controversy

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

polemic +‎ -ize

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Examples

  • But the Pope does not want to polemicize and highlights again, with absolute non-constraint, that from the beginning his pontificate wanted to have as an absolute priority that established by Jesus for the Successor of Peter, namely "to make God present in this world and to open to men the access to God", in a world in which "God disappears from the horizon of men".

    Advance Report on the Papal Letter about the Lifting of the SSPX Excommunications 2009

  • But here I go, succumbing to my great passion and starting to polemicize.

    The Lost Art of Argument Lee Siegel 2010

  • There are exceptions, of course, and you can see those anchors squirm as the new journalists wax, rant and polemicize.

    Scott White: CNBC's Midlife Crisis Scott White 2010

  • There are exceptions, of course, and you can see those anchors squirm as the new journalists wax, rant and polemicize.

    Scott White: CNBC's Midlife Crisis Scott White 2010

  • The latter understanding of Jesus as "son of God" was clearly around at the time of the rise of Islam, and it is not surprising that a monotheist like Muhammad would polemicize against the idea.

    Archive 2009-12-01 James F. McGrath 2009

  • What's more, there are only two mentions that I've found in Isaiah of Asherim often translated as "sacred poles", and neither passage seems to polemicize against the objects themselves or the deity they may have represented.

    Of Absent and Jilted Husbands in the Bible James F. McGrath 2009

  • So let's keep a stable of true "opinion" writers -- whose job is explicitly to take sides and polemicize on controversial issues.

    Dan Froomkin: 'Playing it Safe' Is Killing the American Newspaper 2009

  • The latter understanding of Jesus as "son of God" was clearly around at the time of the rise of Islam, and it is not surprising that a monotheist like Muhammad would polemicize against the idea.

    Half Human On His Mother's Side James F. McGrath 2009

  • Although the idea of a righteous race descended from Seth does not seem to have been at all limited to groups that can be categorized as Gnostics, it is still intriguing that the text from Qumran appears to polemicize against the sons of Seth.

    4QInstruction and Sethian Gnosticism James F. McGrath 2009

  • It has often been popular to polemicize against what is seen as the more parasitical components of capitalism in times of difficulty.

    Alan Miller: Is there a leader in the house? Anywhere? 2008

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