Other forms: contested, contests, contesting
A contest is a competition to decide who is best. Enter a contest, a close contest, no contest.
As a verb, to contest something is to dispute it — a contested election, a contested will — and that sense is stressed on the second syllable where the noun is stressed on the first. No contest is a plea in American courts meaning the accused will not fight the charge. Note that the Latin means to call to witness.
1nouncontestA competition to decide who is best.
“She won a singing contest at the local fair.”
2verbdisputeTo dispute something formally.
“The losing candidate plans to contest the result in court.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
contest is a competition.
Latin contestari means to call to witness, from con plus testis, a witness. Testify and protest come from the same witnessing.
Proto-Indo-European
*steh₂-
Latin
contestor — to call to witness
French
contester
English, today
contest
From French contester, from Old French -, from Latin contestor (“to call to witness”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA