confront

The word “confront” means to face someone directly, often to challenge or accuse them. In plain terms, to face someone or something head-on, especially something unpleasant.

“Confront” is pronounced kuhn-FRUHNT (/kənˈfɹʌnt/ in IPA).

Here is “confront” used in a sentence: “She decided to confront her landlord about the broken heating.”

“Confront” is a verb.

The word “confront” comes from Medieval Latin. From Medieval Latin confrontare, from con- ("together") + frontem ("forehead, front") — literally "to stand front-to-front with".

“Confront” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B2 level.

“Confront” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: to face someone directly, often to challenge or accuse them.

Confront often implies a direct, sometimes challenging or accusatory encounter with a person, while face is a broader, more neutral word for dealing with a person or situation. Confront carries a stronger sense of tension or opposition than face does.

Confront is a verb describing the action of facing someone or something directly, while confrontation is the noun for the tense clash or standoff that results. You confront a problem, and the resulting clash can be called a confrontation.

Yes, confront can mean facing up to a difficult problem or situation instead of avoiding it, not just facing another person directly to challenge or accuse them. Both uses share the core idea of meeting something head-on rather than sidestepping it.