disputes

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of dispute.

   Workers and management settled their long-standing disputes after weeks of talks.

   Border disputes between the two nations flared up again last spring.

   Note

   Only the countable noun has a plural. When dispute means debate or altercation in general, it is uncountable. Disputes therefore always counts separate quarrels, such as several pay disputes running at once, and never measures an amount of arguing. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, so a headline like "Union disputes" leaves context to decide whether it names a thing or an action.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of dispute.

   The company disputes the regulator's findings and plans to appeal.

   No serious scholar disputes the basic timeline of these events.

   Note

   A form whose meaning shifts with its object. With a claim, finding or fact as object, it denies validity: the company disputes the regulator's findings. With something to be won, such as territory or a title, it means contests. Without an object it simply means argues. An older sense, to resist or struggle against, is obsolete, so "disputes the enemy" no longer reads as fighting him.

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