Synonyms and Antonyms of controversial
- tried to avoid controversial topics over the holiday dinner table
argumentative, contentious, disputatious, hot-button, polemical (also polemic)
delicate, difficult, knotty, problematic (also problematical), spiny, thorny, ticklish, touchy, tough
- controversial by temperament, she's the sort of political attack dog who kills all hope of bipartisanship
argumentative, contentious, disputatious, polemical (also polemic), quarrelsome, scrappy
aggressive, bellicose, belligerent, combative, gladiatorial, militant, pugnacious, truculent, warlike
balky, contrary, ornery, perverse, restive, wayward
disobedient, froward, insubordinate, intractable, recalcitrant, refractory
hardheaded, headstrong, mulish, obdurate, obstinate, pigheaded, resistant, self-opinionated, self-willed, stubborn, unbending, uncompromising, uncooperative, unreasonable, unyielding, willful (or wilful)
acidic, bearish, bilious, cantankerous, captious, choleric, crabby, cranky, cross, disagreeable, dyspeptic, fretful, grouchy, grumpy, huffy, ill-humored, ill-natured, ill-tempered, irascible, irritable, peevish, pettish, petulant, querulous, rude, snappish, snappy, splenetic, testy, touchy, waspish