| No. | Item | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | acrimonious | marked by bitterness and conflict |
| 2. | adversarial | involving opposing sides in conflict |
| 3. | agenda-driven | pushing a narrow partisan aim |
| 4. | agitating | stirring people into unrest or dispute |
| 5. | alienating | driving people apart emotionally |
| 6. | alienative | tending to estrange or divide |
| 7. | atomizing | breaking social unity into individuals |
| 8. | balkanizing | splitting into hostile smaller groups |
| 9. | battle-line | drawing clear opposing sides |
| 10. | belligerent | aggressively hostile or combative |
| 11. | binary | forcing issues into two sides |
| 12. | bisecting | dividing into two parts |
| 13. | black-and-white | framed in rigid opposing terms |
| 14. | branching | dividing into different directions |
| 15. | camp-splitting | dividing people into camps |
| 16. | centrifugal | pulling people away from center |
| 17. | charged | full of strong conflicting feeling |
| 18. | cleaving | splitting into separate parts |
| 19. | confrontational | tending toward direct conflict |
| 20. | contentious | causing or likely to cause argument |
| 21. | controversial | likely to provoke public disagreement |
| 22. | controverted | disputed and argued over |
| 23. | debatable | open to argument or dispute |
| 24. | discordant | marked by disagreement or conflict |
| 25. | disputed | not agreed upon by everyone |
| 26. | disruptive | causing disturbance or division |
| 27. | disturbing | causing upset and conflicting reactions |
| 28. | disuniting | breaking apart a unified group |
| 29. | dividing | separating people into opposing sides |
| 30. | divisive | causing disagreement and split opinions |
| 31. | enmity-breeding | creating hostility between people |
| 32. | escalatory | tending to increase conflict |
| 33. | estranging | causing people to grow apart |
| 34. | excluding | shutting some people out |
| 35. | explosive | likely to trigger intense conflict |
| 36. | factional | relating to rival groups |
| 37. | feud-stoking | encouraging ongoing hostility |
| 38. | flashpoint | likely to trigger open conflict |
| 39. | fomenting | encouraging trouble or conflict |
| 40. | forking | splitting into separate paths |
| 41. | fragmenting | causing separation into parts |
| 42. | fraught | filled with tension or conflict |
| 43. | galling | causing resentment and opposition |
| 44. | hard-line | strictly uncompromising and divisive |
| 45. | high-conflict | marked by intense disagreement |
| 46. | highly charged | full of strong opposing emotions |
| 47. | hostile | showing opposition or antagonism |
| 48. | hot-button | provoking strong emotional disagreement |
| 49. | ideological | based on rigid political beliefs |
| 50. | incendiary | likely to stir strong conflict |
| 51. | inflaming | making conflict more intense |
| 52. | inflammatory | arousing anger or heated disagreement |
| 53. | intransigent | refusing to change or compromise |
| 54. | irksome | annoying in a conflict-causing way |
| 55. | jarring | causing discomfort and disagreement |
| 56. | line-drawing | forcing distinctions between sides |
| 57. | loaded | emotionally charged and biased |
| 58. | marginalizing | pushing people to the edges |
| 59. | Marmite-like | strongly loved or strongly disliked |
| 60. | nonconsensual | lacking broad agreement or support |
| 61. | objectionable | likely to provoke strong objections |
| 62. | offensive | likely to insult and divide |
| 63. | opinion-splitting | dividing people by their views |
| 64. | opposed | set against another side |
| 65. | oppositional | defined by resistance or opposition |
| 66. | ostracizing | pushing people outside the group |
| 67. | othering | treating some people as outsiders |
| 68. | parting | causing separation or division |
| 69. | party-splitting | causing division within a group |
| 70. | pointed | directly critical or provocative |
| 71. | polarising | causing sharp division of opinion |
| 72. | polemical | strongly attacking opposing views |
| 73. | provocative | causing strong reactions or debate |
| 74. | rancorous | full of bitter disagreement |
| 75. | resentment-fueling | feeding bitterness between groups |
| 76. | rift-making | creating a serious disagreement |
| 77. | rigid | not flexible or moderate |
| 78. | ruptive | causing breaks in unity |
| 79. | rupturing | breaking unity or agreement |
| 80. | schism-causing | bringing about a serious division |
| 81. | schismatic | causing division into opposing groups |
| 82. | sectarian | favoring one group against others |
| 83. | sensitive | likely to arouse strong feelings |
| 84. | separative | tending to keep groups apart |
| 85. | split-inducing | causing people to split apart |
| 86. | splitting | causing people to divide strongly |
| 87. | strident | forcefully opinionated and abrasive |
| 88. | thorny | difficult and likely to cause dispute |
| 89. | touchy | easily causing offense or dispute |
| 90. | tribal | driven by group loyalty and division |
| 91. | two-sided | producing strongly opposed reactions |
| 92. | uncompromising | not allowing middle ground |
| 93. | unsettled | not agreed on; still disputed |
| 94. | unsettling | making people uneasy and divided |
| 95. | unyielding | not willing to compromise |
| 96. | us-versus-them | setting one group against another |
| 97. | volatile | prone to sudden intense conflict |
| 98. | wedge-driving | creating separation between groups |
| 99. | wedge-issuing | used to divide opposing groups |
| 100. | zero-sum | treating gains as others’ losses |