toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

controversial
in a sentence

show 120 more with this conextual meaning
  • The caption below it says, "A controversial non-call in Buenos Aires."†   (source)
  • This is one reason that affirmative action programs are so controversial.†   (source)
  • It is hardly news, nor is it controversial.†   (source)
  • For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character.†   (source)
  • This happens sometimes when you publish controversial articles.†   (source)
  • The idea of sending me into combat is controversial.†   (source)
  • THE SHOT ENDED UP BEING CONTROVERSIAL.†   (source)
  • The last book had become a controversial bestseller.†   (source)
  • Lincoln was transformed from a controversial and often unpopular war leader into a martyr and hero.†   (source)
  • With a new semester, he was now busy with a class of incoming freshmen, a set of demonstrations over a controversial speaker, and a group of football players who had started a brawl at a local dance bar.†   (source)
  • He enrolled first in the medicine program at the University of Vermont in Burlington but found the school too small and after only one year moved to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, one of the West's leading scientific medical schools, noted for its emphasis on the controversial art of dissection.†   (source)
  • She could see that Nick and his parents were not going to be pushed into saying anything controversial.†   (source)
  • That is my minor premise, controversial though it may be.†   (source)
  • A half-hour episode of a science news program, this one on the controversial new subject of infoastronomy, the search for radio signals coming from other solar systems.†   (source)
  • But the most controversial one dealt with getting Lomas and Sangra to stop fighting each other.†   (source)
  • …the victim of Virgil Bymes's attack; Sandy Calhoune, theboy's mother and a frequent columnist for this newspaper; Carver Milddleton, who served time on an assault charge against Virgil Byrnes in a related incident; the Reverend John Ellerby, controversial Episcopalian minister whose support of female clergy and full homosexual rights has frequently focused a spotlight on him in his 15-year stay at St. Mark's; and his son, Steve Ellerby, who describes himself as "a controversial…†   (source)
  • Janet, before retiring to the ashram, was a foreign-currency analyst who did research for a secret group of advanced theorists connected to some controversial think-tank.†   (source)
  • "Well," he says, spreading his fingers out in front of him on the desk, "there are therapists who believe that hypnosis can be used to recover repressed memories, but it's very controversial.†   (source)
  • If, by chance, any controversial issue springs up between now and election day, I would very much appreciate being informed as to the particulars.†   (source)
  • In the months afterwards, although I didn't know it at the time, I would do other and more controversial surgeries.†   (source)
  • "This was a college," I tell them, "where the wife of the president of the United States was actually banned because she was 'too controversial.'†   (source)
  • By far the most controversial of Brookline's patients was the serial killer Dennis Heimline, known more commonly as the Sculptor.†   (source)
  • I haven't read the book, but judging from the reviews it seems to have been controversial.†   (source)
  • Eight jurors swore they had never known any member of the slain family; four admitted some slight acquaintance with Mr. Clutter, but each, including N. L. Dunnan, the airport operator who had made the controversial reply during the voir dire, testified that he had entered the jury box with an unprejudiced mind.†   (source)
  • The recommendation was controversial, for Jongintaba's mother was from a lesser house, but my father's choice was ultimately accepted by both the Thembus and the British government.†   (source)
  • Crider bused in workers from a homeless shelter, and even cut a deal with local corrections officials that resulted in a controversial program to compel probationers and convicted felons to work in the plant as part of their restitution for their crimes.†   (source)
  • Some of his ideas had been controversial enough to upset his erstwhile sponsor, Gorshkov, by this time commander in chief of the entire Soviet Navy—but the old admiral was not entirely displeased.†   (source)
  • Swedes themselves believe the measure has been a success, although it was controversial at the time it was instituted; one poll showed that 81 percent of Swedes approved of the law.†   (source)
  • His controversial rivalry with Triple Crown winner War Admiral culminated in a spectacular match race that is still widely regarded as the greatest horse race ever run.†   (source)
  • I knew that he could have easily just flat-out refused to let me do this, because the subject and method were so controversial.†   (source)
  • On January 12, 1997, the long and controversial life of the visionary who helped found the semiconductor industry, and the Central Asia Institute, came to an end.†   (source)
  • Zayd walks in, talking casually about some new album by Tupac Shakur, the controversial and glamorous rapper, talking like nothing ever happened.†   (source)
  • Because it was extremely controversial and the results were immediately covered up, so no one would attempt to replicate them.†   (source)
  • Its contracts with the former Soviet Union were at one time quite controversial.†   (source)
  • He chose a far more controversial route.†   (source)
  • Or, a recent (and extremely controversial) concession, on its steps, if one of the parties was an exclusive monotheist.†   (source)
  • "And you know," I interrupted, "our work is considered very controversial, certainly by some."†   (source)
  • It was the only possible explanation, for Gates had been too controversial, too powerful for too long to function as spectacularly as he did in the courts if his vulnerability was easily uncovered.†   (source)
  • It might be a good idea, as long as your grade comes up and you don't get controversial.†   (source)
  • But that tax cut will be controversial, a hard sell with the new Democratic Congress.†   (source)
  • They printed brief accounts on unlikely pages, worded in such generalities that no reader could discover any hint of a controversial issue.†   (source)
  • It would be controversial, colorful, and most importantly, exclusive.†   (source)
  • Arnott's observation that not many teachers teach grammar nowadays is controversial but widely believed.†   (source)
  • As principal he has a veto over controversial stories.†   (source)
  • But it was not his use of language that made him so controversial on campus; it was the extremity of his views.†   (source)
  • The refusal to join the effort was controversial since American ships were already involved in this type of activity via the Treaty of 1819.†   (source)
  • Emancipation was a salient issue for Union soldiers because it was controversial.†   (source)
  • By following this simple reasoning, we can judge the true meaning of the controversial clause.†   (source)
  • True, there was a phone—the controversial private phone—on Buddy's desk.†   (source)
  • Justice Bok sent me a copy of his controversial speech at Radcliffe.†   (source)
  • Beyond this, as the daughter of a distinguished though colorfully controversial member of the fakulty (many but by no means all of his colleagues shared the Professor's extreme ethnic views), Sophie was only vaguely aware of her father's political beliefs, of his governing rage.†   (source)
  • They were written in an easy conversational style but were anything but works of popularization, since they advanced opinions that were controversial, hypothetical, and untested, though always lively and original.†   (source)
  • Moreover, Webster was sufficiently acute politically to know that a divided party such as his would turn away from politically controversial figures and move to an uncommittedneutral individual, a principle consistently applied to this day.†   (source)
  • The piazza was the sight of a controversial subway stop.†   (source)
  • He's interesting, but he's not controversial.†   (source)
  • The Capitol Visitor Center had been a costly and controversial project.†   (source)
  • Every controversial revelation he published before was always well documented.†   (source)
  • He became much talked about, a controversial figure.†   (source)
  • He turns out to be a controversial fellow.†   (source)
  • However, they are controversial in the Protestant Church.†   (source)
  • He does some very, very controversial things.†   (source)
  • They're not considered controversial in, for example, the Roman Catholic Church."†   (source)
  • Vinge's view was not even controversial in the climate prevailing inside the Firm.†   (source)
  • I don't believe in raising controversial issues," said one of these men.†   (source)
  • In an extremely controversial decision, Smith was banned from racing for one year.†   (source)
  • This was a controversial move within the ANC.†   (source)
  • He was also the most controversial figure in South Carolina at that time.†   (source)
  • The poster elicited nothing in me, not a single, controversial thought.†   (source)
  • Among those eccentric decisions are undoubtedly the controversial staff appointments previously described in this newspaper, which have included the employment of werewolf Remus Lupin, half-giant Rubeus Hagrid and delusional ex-Auror, "Mad-Eye" Moody.†   (source)
  • The Jeffersonian Bible was still in print today and included many of his controversial revisions, among them the removal of the virgin birth and the resurrection.†   (source)
  • All controversial.†   (source)
  • Despite his controversial interview with Caesar, many ask about Peeta, assure me that they know he was speaking under duress.†   (source)
  • The results of her case also had a powerful effect on the medical profession's attitude toward a controversial surgical procedure.†   (source)
  • One of them, Maureen Murphy, ran a controversial campaign for school office on a program of unity and justice.†   (source)
  • Finally, Langdon offered some of his own research—a series of symbologic connections that strongly supported the seemingly controversial claims.†   (source)
  • His role in Hurd's Church was usually that of a bland master of ceremonies, for he rarely delivered a sermon himself; he introduced one guest preacher after another, each one more flamboyant or controversial than himself.†   (source)
  • The controversial, neomodern glass pyramid designed by Chinese-born American architect I. M. Pei still evoked scorn from traditionalists who felt it destroyed the dignity of the Renaissance courtyard.†   (source)
  • Facilities like this had become controversial in the art community because they provided a perfect place for art thieves to hide stolen goods, for years if necessary, until the heat was off.†   (source)
  • What had happened to our tacit agreement to advance smartly through the program without time-consuming and controversial delving?†   (source)
  • The Greek word apokryphos means 'hidden,' and the Apocrypha are therefore the hidden books which some consider highly controversial and others think should be included in the Old Testament.†   (source)
  • "As you are well aware," the secretariat said, "His Holiness and others in Rome have been concerned lately with the political fallout from Opus Dei's more controversial practices."†   (source)
  • The threehundred-page draft—tentatively titled Symbols of the Lost Sacred Feminine—proposed some very unconventional interpretations of established religious iconography which would certainly be controversial.†   (source)
  • Lisbeth Salander spent Christmas morning reading Mikael Blomkvist's controversial book about financial journalism, The Knights Templar: A Cautionary Tale for Financial Reporters.†   (source)
  • Millennium was described as a magazine with low credibility "bent on agitation," and Blomkvist's book on financial journalism was presented as a collection of "controversial claims" about other more respected journalists.†   (source)
  • That chair was controversial, too.†   (source)
  • My father, who was the first to take a controversial situation and say "Let's think about that," had been speechless.†   (source)
  • In 1960, a controversial amateur historian named Ray Neff came upon a description of the Lincoln assassination in a copy of Colburn's United Service Magazine, a British military journal.†   (source)
  • The other was identified as a former American Intelligence officer living in Paris, a highly controversial man who killed a journalist in Vietnam and was given the choice of retiring from the army or facing a court-martial.†   (source)
  • The date is April 10, and he is home alone on this Wednesday night, having just returned from a controversial trip around the country.†   (source)
  • I have passed over some minor authorities that have not been attacked by opponents of the Constitution either because they are so small or so clearly proper to be controversial.†   (source)
  • In retrospect, that budget is often seen as a landmark that put America on a solid fiscal footing for the 1990s, but it was ferociously controversial at the time.†   (source)
  • Slavery was not salient for Confederate soldiers during most of the war because it was not controversial.†   (source)
  • You think my story is controversial?†   (source)
  • The rest were standing around in hatless, smoky little groups of twos and threes and fours inside the heated waiting room, talking in voices that, almost without exception, sounded collegiately dogmatic, as though each young man, in his strident, conversational turn, was clearing up, once and for all, some highly controversial issue, one that the outside, non-matriculating world had been bungling, provocatively or not, for centuries.†   (source)
  • The same analysis, while controversial, may also help explain why male-dominated Muslim societies have similar threads emphasizing self-reliance, honor, courage, and a quick resort to violence.†   (source)
  • Smith, knowing that returning the horse to racing was controversial, took the offensive with the press.†   (source)
  • He opened the meeting with a controversial speech in which he called for our sanctions policy to be reevaluated.†   (source)
  • In one of the wildest and most controversial horse races ever run, Seabiscuit (A) and Ligaroti barrel down the Del Mar homestretch as Spec Richardson, on Ligaroti, repeatedly fouls George Woolf, on Seabiscuit.†   (source)
  • I had spoken extensively with both Coetsee and Dr. Barnard about this meeting, and they had always advised meto avoid controversial issues with the president.†   (source)
  • Cleopatra proved controversial; many of my comrades took exception to the fact that the queen of Egypt was depicted by a raven-haired, violet-eyed American actress, however beautiful.†   (source)
  • A major civil rights bill was passed in 1964, and if it was controversial, it at least nullified a lot of local discriminatory ordinances.†   (source)
  • Perhaps we are as yet too close in time to the controversial elements in the career of Senator Taft to be able to measure his life with historical perspective.†   (source)
  • No, wait a minute, I'll show you something," and he would begin hunting for some newspaper with a controversial article, banging the drawers of bis desk and stimulating his eloquence with this noisy fuss.†   (source)
  • He was an unusual leader, for he lacked the fine arts of oratory and phrasemaking, he lacked blind devotion to the party line (unless he dictated it), and he lacked the politician's natural instinct to avoid controversial positions and issues.†   (source)
  • This rather controversial group was composed of South Carolinians dedicated to easing the strain of total integration in the state.†   (source)
  • At any rate, when a subject is highly controversial—and any question about sex is that—one cannot hope to tell the truth.†   (source)
  • Now do be a good chap, my dear fellow, and don't say anything controversial, will you, old boy, there's a good chap?†   (source)
  • I assure you I have no desire to be controversial.†   (source)
  • She and Mr. van der Luyden were so exactly alike that Archer often wondered how, after forty years of the closest conjugality, two such merged identities ever separated themselves enough for anything as controversial as a talking-over.†   (source)
  • Eminently controversial!†   (source)
  • Next comes an enormous quantity of religious works, Bibles, sermons, edifying anecdotes, controversial divinity, and reports of charitable societies; lastly, appears the long catalogue of political pamphlets.†   (source)
  • Jacob Behmen[518] and George Fox[519] betray their egotism in the pertinacity of their controversial tracts, and James Naylor[520] once suffered himself to be worshiped as the Christ.†   (source)
  • Those pamphlets, as is generally the case with controversial writings, tho' eagerly read at the time, were soon out of vogue, and I question whether a single copy of them now exists.†   (source)
  • The vicar of their pleasant rural parish was not a controversialist, but a good hand at whist, and one who had a joke always ready for a blooming female parishioner.†   (source)
  • Let's begin with a fairly uncontroversial one: the strong economy.†   (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in uncontroversial means not and reverses the meaning of controversial. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • "Now, that seems to me a noncontroversial resolution," Molly said.†   (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "non-" in noncontroversial means not and reverses the meaning of controversial. This is the same pattern you see in words like nonfat, nonfiction, and nonprofit.
  • That much is uncontroversial.†   (source)
  • A remark about the weather, the most studiously uncontroversial opinion, aroused her annoyance.†   (source)
  • Down to Jefferson's day it was almost wholly polemical, and hence lacking in the finer values; he himself, an insatiable propagandist and controversialist, was one of its chief ornaments.†   (source)
  • They were Richard Grant White, for long the leading American writer upon language questions, at least in popular esteem, and Thomas S. Lounsbury, for thirty-five years professor of the English language and literature in the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, and an indefatigable controversialist.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)