Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

contentious

 adjective
     
con‧ten‧tious
1 causing a lot of argument and disagreement between people
contentious issue/area/subject etc
Animal welfare did not become a contentious issue until the late 1970s.
2 someone who is contentious often argues with people
—contentiously adverb
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
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