combat vs contend

combat

verb
  • To fight (with); to struggle for victory (against). 

  • To fight; to struggle against. 

noun
  • A battle, a fight (often one in which weapons are used). 

  • a struggle for victory 

contend

verb
  • To be in opposition; to contest; to dispute; to vie; to quarrel; to fight. 

  • To be in debate; to engage in discussion; to dispute; to argue. 

  • To believe (something is reasonable) and argue (for it); to advocate. 

  • To struggle or exert oneself to obtain or retain possession of, or to defend. 

  • contend with: To try to cope with a difficulty or problem. 

How often have the words combat and contend occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )