as in debate
variance of opinion on a matter
a democracy relies on dissensus as much as on consensus
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Recent Examples of dissensus
These dramas of politics — each involving the high court’s first black justice — arrive at a singularly contentious political moment in an atmosphere of angry, sometimes violent dissensus.
—
Manohla Dargis and A.o. Scott, New York Times, 7 Sep. 2017
Manohla Dargis and A.o. Scott, New York Times, 7 Sep. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dissensus
Noun
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The future of the square has been a subject of heated debate.—
N'dea Yancey-Bragg,
USA Today,
25 May 2025
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After a lengthy debate, the three moderates picked up two votes in their effort to delay those changes, not enough to win the day.—
David Zahniser,
Los Angeles Times,
24 May 2025
Noun
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Jake is a single father who has brought Kristen up in the severe Calvinist tradition, marked by Bible disputations of Talmudic intricacy and by a radical detachment from secular and popular culture.—
Richard Brody,
The New Yorker,
8 Sep. 2023
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Seven decades later, this culture of disputation emerged as a central theme in Timothy Garton Ash’s The Magic Lantern, his eyewitness report on the Eastern European revolutions of 1989.—
Susie Linfield,
The New York Review of Books,
11 May 2022
Noun
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Those CBAs also require that should there be a dispute as to whether the league, a club, a union, or a player abided by their obligations under the CBA, such dispute be settled through a confidential arbitration process.—
Chris Deubert,
Forbes.com,
28 May 2025
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The Supreme Court on May 27 declined to get involved in a dispute about mining on land sacred to the San Carlos Apache Tribe, a case that religious groups backed to test the scope of a 1993 federal law protecting religious freedom.—
Maureen Groppe,
USA Today,
28 May 2025
Noun
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Her crypto controversy began the very next day, resulting in a show hiatus.—
Skyler Caruso,
People.com,
20 May 2025
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Meanwhile, Trump and his allies have attracted their own commencement controversies.—
Emma Whitford,
Forbes.com,
19 May 2025
Noun
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This wasn’t an idle disagreement: to suspect a conspiracy was to suspect a coverup.—
Daniel Immerwahr,
New Yorker,
19 May 2025
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Some of my issues with it boil down to disagreements with Naughty Dog’s choices.—
Erik Kain,
Forbes.com,
19 May 2025
Noun
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Barby Rodriguez, the Chief of Staff at the Clerk of Courts and Comptroller, said that as of this morning, the sheriff’s office has filed 1,364 contestations in the statewide E-Filing portal.—
Clara-Sophia Daly,
Miami Herald,
11 Mar. 2025
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There may be more give-and-take within the Beijing-Moscow-Washington triangle, more concessions on small points, and more openness to negotiation and to confidence-building measures in zones of war and contestation.—
Michael Kimmage,
Foreign Affairs,
25 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dissensus.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dissensus. Accessed 2 Jun. 2025.
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