What's the difference between assert and contend?

Assert


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To affirm; to declare with assurance, or plainly and strongly; to state positively; to aver; to asseverate.
  • (v. t.) To maintain; to defend.
  • (v. t.) To maintain or defend, as a cause or a claim, by words or measures; to vindicate a claim or title to; as, to assert our rights and liberties.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Parents believed they should try to normalize their child's experiences, that interactions with health care professionals required negotiation and assertiveness, and that they needed some support person(s) outside of the family.
  • (2) Jeremy Corbyn could learn a lot from Ken Livingstone | Hugh Muir Read more High-minded commentators will say that self-respect – as well as Burke’s dictum that MPs are more than delegates – should be enough to make members under pressure assert their independence.
  • (3) There are many examples to support his assertion, yet for the most part, it is celebrities who dictate what images can be published and what stories should be told.
  • (4) Neither assertion was strictly accurate, but Obama was on a rhetorical roll.
  • (5) Successful treatment also requires the use of assertive case management, community support, family support, and careful patient education.
  • (6) The UN-recognised parliament is expected to meet on Monday for a vital vote of confidence in the new administration, the next step in asserting its authority in the country.
  • (7) Fields said: "The assertions that Tom Cruise likened making a movie to being at war in Afghanistan is a gross distortion of the record... What Tom said, laughingly, was that sometimes, 'That's what it feels like.'"
  • (8) Is it a moment where culture needs to assert its values?
  • (9) She described Luke as being “open, honest and assertive” during the interview.
  • (10) Individuals in the middle received relatively large amounts of assertive behavior.
  • (11) No differences were observed on the behavioral role plays, which required assertion in a number of heterosexual situations.
  • (12) Bill Shorten has told the union royal commission he would “never be a party to issuing bogus invoices” as he rejected assertions that payments from employers to the Australia Workers’ Union created conflicts of interest during wage negotiations.
  • (13) Hawking's latest comments go beyond those laid out in his 2010 book, The Grand Design , in which he asserted that there is no need for a creator to explain the existence of the universe.
  • (14) Sitting on his stony porch, Rao asserts that he is not being romantic about the benefits of agriculture: “Here we earn more than 120,000 rupees [£1,170] a year, and our cost of living is one-fifth that of a city’s.
  • (15) But Clegg also says he is not going to be cowed into taking Cameron's vow of silence about Farage's assertion that he finds Britain unrecognisable and is uncomfortable at the lack of English spoken on commuter trains out of Charing Cross.
  • (16) We assert that OCD and AVN are relatively common, clinically significant lesions of the mandibular condyle often associated with preexisting internal derangement of the temporomandibular joint.
  • (17) On the basis of the results of the research the Authors conclude by asserting that the combined use of mannitol and propanol has a real protective effect in preventing or attenuating lesions of the kidney caused by serious acute renal failure.
  • (18) Grade said he objected to Dyke's assertion in the Times that he used information about the BBC's schedule when he quit as chairman of the corporation in late 2006 to move to ITV.
  • (19) The ethnomedical model asserts that efforts to secure the compliance of target populations are likely to be inadequate without an alliance between health professionals and communities to identify and address mutually comprehensible objectives that are perceived locally as meaningful and relevant.
  • (20) Moreover, the heterogeneity of ES components questions the assertion of previous workers that the allergenic, IgE-potentiating, and protective activities of larval ES can be ascribed to one molecular species.

Contend


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To strive in opposition; to contest; to dispute; to vie; to quarrel; to fight.
  • (v. i.) To struggle or exert one's self to obtain or retain possession of, or to defend.
  • (v. i.) To strive in debate; to engage in discussion; to dispute; to argue.
  • (v. t.) To struggle for; to contest.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Duesberg contends that HIV is neither necessary nor sufficient to cause AIDS.
  • (2) It is contended that the latter is the main factor in its production as opposed to the more common external rotation variety.
  • (3) The truth is, some of these attacks would be leveled against any Republican presidential contender.
  • (4) What did surprise pundits was Hollywood's recognition of this unflinching Austrian film about ageing as a candidate for best picture, among such expected contenders as Steven Spielberg's Lincoln , Ben Affleck's Argo and Tom Hooper's Les Misérables .
  • (5) The mayor needs to be in parliament to challenge other contenders for the party's leadership, such as George Osborne and Theresa May.
  • (6) Defence lawyers contended that Saiful's testimony about the alleged sodomy, at a Kuala Lumpur condominium in 2008, was riddled with inconsistencies and the DNA evidence mishandled by investigators.
  • (7) Although Menzies, et al., report that survival rates are higher than previously expected and that in most cases the children's and parents' lives appear not to be excessively burdensome, the Working Group contends that there "continues to be ethical justification for selective treatment" of such newborns.
  • (8) Romney contends the president is a nice guy who has failed to make things better.
  • (9) Radiotherapy after limited resection of craniopharyngiomas has been advocated by some investigators while others contend radical resections by means of advanced surgical techniques afford better outcome of patients.
  • (10) Despite spanning more than 1,300 acres it will not, apparently, be a contender for the title of world's largest: that appears still to reside with the 47-stage Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, India, as certified by Guinness World Records .
  • (11) Those seeking to stop the project contend that the $997m joint venture, signed in May 2010, did not undergo parliamentary scrutiny because it was concluded under the previous military regime.
  • (12) Although acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is clearly a public health threat, Beauchamp contends that the view that it is also a threat to the majority's values is a form of potentially counterproductive legal moralism.
  • (13) The author contends that changes in psychoanalytic theory are currently facilitating a more experiential view of the Rorschach.
  • (14) And he will contend, with a laugh, that therefore by any objective criteria, at 54, his career should be over already, while all the time doing everything in his power to prove the opposite.
  • (15) Scott Walker says building Canada border wall is a 'legitimate issue' Read more The governor, who is running well behind among the 17 contenders in the Republican White House race, sought to draw a distinction between his proposal and what he called Donald Trump’s “simplistic” idea on how to deal with an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the US.
  • (16) The prosecution contended that while that manoeuvre was lawful, his repeated use of a baton against her legs showed the officer had lost his self-control.
  • (17) It represents something of a vindication for Spielberg whose last high-minded awards contender, the first-world-war drama War Horse, failed to win anything at the last edition of either the Globes or the Oscars.
  • (18) Before we meet, I have to have a stern talk with myself about not mentioning the game last August in which all Arsenal fans will contend that Barton got new signing Gervinho sent off on his debut; he's had similarly abrasive encounters since with fellow midfielders, Karl Henry from Wolves and Norwich's Bradley Johnson, the latter earning him a three-match ban.
  • (19) With four matches to take the crown, a single strength can make the difference for the remaining contenders.
  • (20) It’s a massive inconvenience to have to check a laptop, and you can imagine that such a demand is met with resistance by air carriers, who are powerful lobbies.” US airlines have been lobbying the Trump administration to intervene in the Persian Gulf, where they have contended for years that the investments in three rapidly expanding airlines in the area – Etihad Airways, Qatar, and Emirates – constitute unfair government subsidies with which Delta, American and United cannot compete.