Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Disputation

Disputation , noun

[Old English desputeson, disputacion, Old French desputeison, French disputation, from Latin disputatio. See Dispute, v. i.]

1.
The act of disputing; a reasoning or argumentation in opposition to something, or on opposite sides; controversy in words; verbal contest respecting the truth of some fact, opinion, proposition, or argument.
2.
A rhetorical exercise in which parties reason in opposition to each other on some question proposed.