contend vs litigate

contend

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

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

  • 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. 

litigate

verb
  • To dispute; to fight over. 

  • To go to law; to carry on a lawsuit. 

  • To contest in law. 

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