# conflict

Pronunciation: say "KON-flikt" US /ˈkɑn.flɪkt/, UK /ˈkɒn.flɪkt/

## Noun

1. A struggle or disagreement between opposing people or groups, often one that turns violent.
   - Simple: A serious fight or argument between people or groups.
   - _Decades of conflict left the region devastated and its people displaced._
   - _The peace talks aimed to end the long conflict between the rival factions._
2. An incompatibility between two things that cannot both be satisfied at the same time.
   - Simple: A situation where two things do not fit together, so you cannot have both.
   - _A conflict between personal interest and public duty must be disclosed to the board._
   - _The investigation revealed a conflict in the two witnesses' accounts of the night._
4. An inner struggle between two incompatible feelings that a person has at the same moment.
   - Simple: A struggle inside you when you have two feelings at once that do not fit together.
   - _The novel traces the heroine's conflict between love for her husband and resentment of the life he has given her._
   - _Torn between relief and guilt, he lived for months in a state of conflict he could not explain to anyone._

## Verb

Pronunciation: say "kuhn-FLIKT" /kənˈflɪkt/

3. To be at variance with something, so that the two cannot both be true, accepted, or followed.
   - Simple: To disagree with something or not fit together with it.
   - _The new safety rules conflict with longstanding company practice._
   - _Eyewitness reports often conflict when memories of an event fade._
5. To overlap in timing with something else, as when two scheduled events coincide.
   - Simple: To happen at the same time as something else, so you cannot do both.
   - _The two fundraisers conflict this year, so supporters will have to choose one._
   - _The dentist appointment conflicts with the team meeting this afternoon._

## Origin

Latin confligere meant "to strike together" and was built from com- ("together," a form of con-) and fligere ("to strike"); its past participle, conflictus, is where the English word comes from.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/conflict (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).