contend vs deny

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. 

deny

verb
  • To disclaim connection with, responsibility for, etc.; to refuse to acknowledge; to disown; to abjure; to disavow. 

  • To assert that something is not true. 

  • To refuse to give or grant something to someone. 

  • To disallow or reject. 

  • To take something away from someone; to deprive of. 

  • To prevent from scoring. 

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