challenge
pronunciation
How to pronounce challenge in British English:
UK [ˈtʃælɪndʒ]
How to pronounce challenge in American English:
US [ˈtʃælɪndʒ]
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- Noun:
- a demanding or stimulating situation
- a call to engage in a contest or fight
- questioning a statement and demanding an explanation
- a formal objection to the selection of a particular person as a juror
- a demand by a sentry for a password or identification
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- Verb:
- take exception to
- issue a challenge to
- ask for identification
- raise a formal objection in a court of law
Word Origin
- challenge
- challenge: [13] The original notion contained in challenge in English was of ‘accusation’. The word comes, via Old French chalenge or calenge, from Latin calumnia ‘false charge, deception’ (source of English calumny [15]). By the early 14th century, the modern, more neutral sense of ‘inviting to a contest’ had emerged, however, and before the end of the 17th century the word’s accusatory connotations had virtually died out.Latin calumnia probably came from the verb calvī ‘deceive’. This may, via an unrecorded intermediary *calvilla, be related to Latin cavilla ‘raillery’, whose derived verb cavillārī was the source of English cavil [16].=> calumny
- challenge (n.)
- early 14c., "something one can be accused of, a fault, blemish;" mid-14c., "false accusation, malicious charge; accusation of wrong-doing," also "act of laying claim" (to something), from Anglo-French chalenge, Old French chalonge "calumny, slander; demand, opposition," in legal use, "accusation, claim, dispute," from Anglo-French chalengier, Old French chalongier "to accuse, to dispute" (see challenge (v.)). Accusatory connotations died out 17c. Meanings "an objection" in law, etc.; "a calling to fight" are from mid-15c. Meaning "difficult task" is from 1954.
- challenge (v.)
- c. 1200, "to rebuke," from Old French chalongier "complain, protest; haggle, quibble," from Vulgar Latin calumniare "to accuse falsely," from Latin calumniari "to accuse falsely, misrepresent, slander," from calumnia "trickery" (see calumny). From late 13c. as "to object to, take exception to;" c. 1300 as "to accuse," especially "to accuse falsely," also "to call to account;" late 14c. as "to call to fight." Also used in Middle English with sense "claim, take to oneself." Related: Challenged; challenging.
Example
- 1. This then is a global challenge .
- 2. Some of the paper 's results challenge accepted wisdom .
- 3. Ubs said it would challenge enforcement of the complaint .
- 4. Diagnosing cancer is a challenge because it requires expensive , time-consuming assays .
- 5. Its pluralism was a profound challenge to the authoritarian crony capitalism taking root in russia under vladimir putin .