binary opposition
noun Linguistics.
a relation between the members of a pair of linguistic items, as a pair of distinctive features, such that one is the absence of the other, as voicelessness and voice, or that one is at the opposite pole from the other, as stridency and mellowness.
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Nearby words
binary form, binary notation, binary number, binary number system, binary operation, binary opposition, binary pulsar, binary star, binary system, binary weapon, binary-coded decimal
Origin of binary opposition
First recorded in 1950–55
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019