antipodes

¹ American  

[an-tip-uh-deez] / ænˈtɪp əˌdiz /

plural noun

1. places diametrically opposite each other on the globe.

2. those who dwell there.

---

Antipodes ² American  

[an-tip-uh-deez] / ænˈtɪp əˌdiz /

noun

(used with a plural verb)

1. a group of islands SE of and belonging to New Zealand. 24 sq. mi. (62 sq. km).

---

antipodes British  

/ ænˈtɪpəˌdiːz, ænˌtɪpəˈdiːən /

plural noun

1. either or both of two points, places, or regions that are situated diametrically opposite to one another on the earth's surface, esp the country or region opposite one's own

2. the people who live there

3. (often capital) Australia and New Zealand

4. (sometimes functioning as singular) the exact or direct opposite

---

antipodes Scientific  

/ ăn-tĭp′ə-dēz′ /

1. Two places on directly opposite sides of the Earth, such as the North Pole and the South Pole.

---

antipodes Cultural  

1. Two places on the globe that are exactly opposite each other; for example, the North Pole and South Pole.

---

Other Word Forms

• antipodean adjective

Etymology

Origin of antipodes

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin, from Greek (hoi) antípodes literally, “(those) with the feet opposite,” (plural of antípous ), equivalent to anti- “against, opposite” + -podes, nominative plural of poûs “foot”; foot

Example Sentences

These two locales — one urban, one rural — would form the antipodes of his work.

From New York Times

The news from the antipodes helped provide direction to markets that had been drifting ahead of the release of minutes of the U.S.

From Reuters

Waldseemüller’s world map of 1507, the first to include the name ‘America’, the first to show the New World as, in effect, a new continent, and the first to show antipodes.

From Literature

I sometimes sign my emails to National Geographic editors, “Yours from the antipodes,” because that’s how it feels to be so distant from the centers of American and European influence.

From National Geographic

As one Columbia University sociologist who travelled to the antipodes to study “the social experiment of Australia” remarked, the world’s newest nation “has worked out a unique and interesting experiment in democracy”.

From The Guardian