Meaning & use
confront
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To face a person directly and challenge them about something wrong or upsetting.
Grammar: Takes a person as object, often with about or with: confront him about the lie.
Patterns
- confront someone about something
- confront someone with something
She confronted her boss about the unfair schedule.
He finally confronted his brother with the evidence.
verbtransitive
To deal with a difficult problem or fear rather than avoid it.
Grammar: Takes an object: confront the problem.
Patterns
- confront something
- confront a fear
We must confront the issue of low wages.
She confronted her fear of flying by taking lessons.
verbtransitive
To appear in front of someone as a difficulty they must deal with.
Grammar: Often passive: be confronted by or with something.
Patterns
- be confronted by something
- be confronted with something
Hikers were confronted by a swollen river.
The team is confronted with a tough choice.
Word forms
| third person singular | confronts |
|---|---|
| past tense | confronted |
| past participle | confronted |
| -ing form | confronting |
Common combinations
- confront a problem
- The city must confront the problem of traffic.
- confront someone about
- She confronted him about the missing money.
- confront a fear
- He confronted his fear of heights.
- confronted with evidence
- The suspect was confronted with the evidence.
- directly confront
- We need to directly confront the issue.
Synonyms and how they differ
- face
- Face is milder and can mean simply accepting a situation, without hostility.
- challenge
- Challenge stresses disputing a person's claim or authority.
- tackle
- Tackle suggests getting to work on a problem, with less tension than confront.
- oppose
- Oppose means to act against, not necessarily to face directly.
Opposites
Word family
- confrontation noun
- an angry meeting or clash
- confrontational adjective
- likely to cause or enjoy conflict
- confrontationally adverb
- in an aggressive, challenging way
Commonly confused: confront or conflict?
confront vs conflict
Conflict is a serious disagreement or fight; confront is an action of facing someone or something.
Practice
She decided to ____ her neighbor about the noise.
Choose one answer.
Confront someone about something means to challenge them directly. The other verbs do not take this pattern naturally.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “confront”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.