Other forms: challenges, challenged, challenging
To challenge something is to dispute whether it is right. Challenge a decision, challenge the figures, the ruling was challenged in court.
It also means to invite somebody to a contest — challenge him to a race — and to test somebody's abilities: a job that challenges you. The noun runs the same three ways, and a challenge in modern usage is very often a polite word for a problem: we face some challenges. That euphemism is common in management speech and worth recognising. Note challenging, which means both difficult and stimulating, and only tone decides which.
1verbchallengeTo question whether something is right or true.
“Nobody challenged the figures until it was too late.”
2noundifficultSomething difficult that tests you.
“The first winter was a real challenge.”
3verbinviteTo invite somebody to a contest.
“He challenged her to a rematch.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
challenge is a dispute or a test.
Old French chalenge came from Latin calumnia, a false accusation — the same word as calumny. A challenge was originally an accusation, and the sense of inviting a contest came from the formal challenge to a duel.
Middle English
chalenge
English, today
challenge
From Middle English chalenge, variant with palatalization of Middle English kalange (“an accusation, claim”), from Old French chalenge, chalonge, palatalized Central French variants of fro-nor calenge, calonge (see Continental Norman calengier), from Latin calumnia (“a false accusation, calumny”). Cognate with Old English hol#Etymology_2_6 (“calumny”). a doublet of calumny.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA