au contraire
American-
on the contrary.
-
on the opposite or adverse side.
adverb
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Using less water didn’t affect the harvest, au contraire, it actually improved the grapes’ quality.
From Forbes • Oct. 2, 2014
If you’re the kind of consumer who likes to know where your food comes from, this might sound like a pretty good idea, but au contraire: This law is as flawed as they come.
From Slate • Jul. 24, 2014
The problem is not that it is so complicated that only three people understand it; au contraire, thousands claim to comprehend it and therein lies the difficulty: their "understandings" differ so markedly, one from another.
From The Guardian • Dec. 26, 2010
Humans have no fear of Twinkies and cheeseburgers - au contraire - although these foods have become more dangerous to our health than anything that skitters, flits or crawls.
From Washington Post • Oct. 25, 2010
Pour le philosophe idéaliste, au contraire, forme et mouvement sont tout aussi subjectifs que lumière et chaleur, et il n’y a que la chose-en-soi inconnue, le “noumène,” qui jouisse d’une réalité extramentale complète.
From Essays in Radical Empiricism by James, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
