| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
| contrary |
| |
| SYLLABICATION: | con·trar·y |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  k n tr r  |
| ADJECTIVE: | 1. Opposed, as in character or purpose: contrary opinions; acts that are contrary to our code of ethics. 2. Opposite in direction or position: Our boat took a course contrary to theirs. See synonyms at opposite. 3. Music Moving in the opposite direction at a fixed interval: playing scales in contrary motion. 4. Adverse; unfavorable: a contrary wind. 5. (also k n-trâr) Given to recalcitrant behavior; willful or perverse. | | NOUN: | Inflected forms: pl. con·trar·ies
1. Something that is opposite or contrary. 2. Either of two opposing or contrary things: “Truth is perhaps . . . a dynamic compound of opposites, savage contraries for a moment conjoined” (A. Bartlett Giamatti). 3. Logic A proposition related to another in such a way that if the latter is true, the former must be false, but if the latter is false, the former is not necessarily true. | | ADVERB: | In an opposite direction or manner; counter: The judge ruled contrary to all precedent in the case. | | IDIOMS: | by contraries Obsolete In opposition to what is expected. on the contrary In opposition to what has been stated or what is expected: I'm not sick; on the contrary, I'm in the peak of health. to the contrary To the opposite effect from what has been stated or what is expected: Despite what you say to the contary, this contract is fair. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English contrarie, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin contr rius : contr, against; see kom in Appendix I + -rius, -ary. | | OTHER FORMS: | contrari·ly (kntrr--l, kn-trâr-) —ADVERB
contrari·ness —NOUN
| | |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
