in contention vs vexed

in contention

prep
  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, contention. 

  • Contending for a title or championship. 

vexed

adj
  • annoyed, irritated or distressed 

  • much debated, discussed or disputed 

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