contest

noun

1. (uncountable)Controversy; debate.

   “Your question betrays, I suspect, a somewhat naive vision of the world as much smaller (and much more homogenized) than it could possibly be — a vision that one of my "personal" visions, as you'll find it in some of my recent science fiction, is specifically and heartedly in contest with.”

   “no contest”

2. (uncountable)Struggle for superiority; combat.
3. (countable)A competition.

   “The child entered the spelling contest.”

verb

1. (intransitive)To contend.

   “I will contest for the open seat on the board.”

   “Of man, who dares in pomp with Jove contest?”

   “1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth As for the difficulty or obscurity of an argument, that does but add to the pleasure.of contesting with it when there are hopes of victory”

2. (transitive)To call into question; to oppose.

   “The rival contested the dictator's re-election because of claims of voting irregularities.”

   “Few philosophical aphorisms have been more frequently repeated, few more contested than this.”

3. (transitive)To strive earnestly to hold or maintain; to struggle to defend.

   “The troops contested every inch of ground.”

4. To make a subject of litigation; to defend, as a suit; to dispute or resist, as a claim, by course of law.