polemical
nounEtymology From polemic + -al. By surface analysis, polem- + -ic + -al.
1
A diatribe or polemic.
polemical
adjCA, US, UK /pəˈlɛmɪkəl/ · AU /pəˈlemɪkəl/
Etymology From polemic + -al. By surface analysis, polem- + -ic + -al.
› Related to argument or controversy…
1
Being an attempt to evaluate the arguments comprehensively.
- […] in order to give a comprehensive critical and polemical analysis of the Dictionary in question, a whole book would be needed.1996, Igor Diakonoff, Leonid Kogan, “Addenda et Corrigenda to Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary by V. Orel and O. Stolbova”, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, volume 146, page 25:
- Bachelard has given a clear analysis of the "Atlas complex", a polemical complex and schema of verticalising effort or elevation, accompanied by a feeling of monarchical contemplation which diminishes the world so as better to glorify the gigantic, and the ambition inherent in ascensional reveries.1999, Gilbert Durand, The Anthropological Structures of the Imaginary, page 154:
2
Derogatory Prone to causing disputes; inclined to causing the expression of opposing opinions, disputatious, contentious, edgy.
- And though the annals of the period do not show us that there was less ale drawn, or less canary called for; men got dry with the heat of polemical discussion, and drunk with a text, not the fag end of a ballad, in their mouths; and people made a sort of morality of straight hair, long faces, and sad-coloured garments.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 190:
- Not only are all these allegations worded in an unnecessarily polemical style, they are also simply false2012, Craig L. Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables, →ISBN, page 48:
3 more examples
- Remarkable here is the rather polemical choice of words […]2013, Johannes Zachhuber, Theology as Science in Nineteenth-Century Germany, →ISBN, page 57:
- If democratic legitimacy is a principle—and not just a polemical weapon wielded by the left in a selective and self-serving way—then we would have to consider not only the democratic legitimacy of a potential reversal of Roe but also the democratic legitimacy (if any) of the constitutional right to abortion itself.2021, Carson Holloway, Dobbs and Democratic Legitimacy, in: Law and Liberty, December 21 2021
- Correct. That was actually my first internet controversy many years ago, with the kinists, white identitarians — I call them skinists. And I’ve been in polemical firefights with antisemites and actual misogynists, not people who are accused of being that way.2025 October 9, Ross Douthat, quoting Doug Wilson, “He Believes America Should Be a Theocracy. He Says His Influence Is Growing.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 Oct 2025:
- Derived terms
- nonpolemical, overpolemical, philopolemical, polemically, unpolemical