All cross-purpose synonyms

noun cross-purpose

• impasse — a position or situation from which there is no escape; deadlock.
• discord — lack of concord or harmony between persons or things: marital discord.
• dissent — to differ in sentiment or opinion, especially from the majority; withhold assent; disagree (often followed by from): Two of the justices dissented from the majority decision.
• disunity — lack of unity or accord.
• argument — An argument is a statement or set of statements that you use in order to try to convince people that your opinion about something is correct.
• friction — surface resistance to relative motion, as of a body sliding or rolling.
• wrangle — to argue or dispute, especially in a noisy or angry manner.
• controversy — Controversy is a lot of discussion and argument about something, often involving strong feelings of anger or disapproval.
• debate — A debate is a discussion about a subject on which people have different views.
• fight — a battle or combat.
• split — to divide or separate from end to end or into layers: to split a log in two.
• spat — a pointed rod or bar for thrusting through and holding meat that is to be cooked before or over a fire.
• tension — the act of stretching or straining.
• squabble — to engage in a petty quarrel.
• clash — When people clash, they fight, argue, or disagree with each other.
• antagonism — Antagonism between people is hatred or dislike between them. Antagonisms are instances of this.
• hostility — a hostile state, condition, or attitude; enmity; antagonism; unfriendliness.
• misunderstanding — failure to understand correctly; mistake as to meaning or intent.
• opposition — the action of opposing, resisting, or combating.
• animosity — Animosity is a strong feeling of dislike and anger. Animosities are feelings of this kind.
• difference — the state or relation of being different; dissimilarity: There is a great difference between the two.
• division — the act or process of dividing; state of being divided.
• strife — vigorous or bitter conflict, discord, or antagonism: to be at strife.
• feud — fee (def 4).
• conflict — Conflict is serious disagreement and argument about something important. If two people or groups are in conflict, they have had a serious disagreement or argument and have not yet reached agreement.
• bickering — to engage in petulant or peevish argument; wrangle: The two were always bickering.
• contention — Someone's contention is the idea or opinion that they are expressing in an argument or discussion.
• contest — A contest is a competition or game in which people try to win.
• disunion — a severance of union; separation; disjunction.
• vendetta — a private feud in which the members of the family of a murdered person seek to avenge the murder by killing the slayer or one of the slayer's relatives, especially such vengeance as once practiced in Corsica and parts of Italy.
• break — When an object breaks or when you break it, it suddenly separates into two or more pieces, often because it has been hit or dropped.
• hassle — a disorderly dispute.
• altercation — An altercation is a noisy argument or disagreement.
• words — a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two or three such units combined under certain linking conditions, as with the loss of primary accent that distinguishes black·bird· from black· bird·. Words are usually separated by spaces in writing, and are distinguished phonologically, as by accent, in many languages.
• breach — If you breach an agreement, a law, or a promise, you break it.
• variance — the state, quality, or fact of being variable, divergent, different, or anomalous.
• rupture — the act of breaking or bursting: The flood led to the rupture of the dam.
• dissidence — disagreement: political dissidence.
• atmospherics — Atmospherics are elements in something such as a piece of music or a book which create a certain atmosphere.
• clashing — to make a loud, harsh noise: The gears of the old car clashed and grated.
• ill will — hostile feeling; malevolence; enmity: to harbor ill will against someone.
• jarring — to have a harshly unpleasant or perturbing effect on one's nerves, feelings, thoughts, etc.: The sound of the alarm jarred.
• divisiveness — forming or expressing division or distribution.
• ill feeling — animosity or resentment felt toward another.
• collision — A collision occurs when a moving object crashes into something.
• dead heat — If a race or contest is a dead heat, two or more competitors are joint winners, or are both winning at a particular moment in the race or contest. In American English, you can say that a race or contest is in a dead heat.
• deadlock — If a dispute or series of negotiations reaches deadlock, neither side is willing to give in at all and no agreement can be made.
• showdown — the laying down of one's cards, face upward, in a card game, especially poker.
• standoff — a standing off or apart; aloofness.
• wash — to apply water or some other liquid to (something or someone) for the purpose of cleansing; cleanse by dipping, rubbing, or scrubbing in water or some other liquid.