SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
litigate
verb
To pursue or contest a dispute through legal proceedings.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Pursue a dispute in court
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topLitigate includes defending a case as well as initiating one; sue normally describes the initiating party's action.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See litigate in use
In the story, both families decide to litigate the disputed inheritance.
The partners decide to litigate the dispute about that sheet, asking a court within the story to determine their competing claims.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license