contradictory
Americanadjective
-
asserting the contrary or opposite; contradicting; inconsistent; logically opposite.
contradictory statements.
- Synonyms:
- paradoxical, irreconcilable
-
tending or inclined to contradict.
noun
plural
contradictoriesadjective
-
inconsistent; incompatible
-
given to argument and contention
a contradictory person
-
logic (of a pair of statements) unable both to be true or both to be false under the same circumstances Compare contrary subcontrary
noun
Other Word Forms
- contradictorily adverb
- contradictoriness noun
- intercontradictory adjective
- noncontradictory adjective
- uncontradictory adjective
Etymology
Origin of contradictory
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Late Latin contrādictōrius; equivalent to contradict + -ory 1
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.
Sondheim’s were instead tamed by his art, Okrent suggests, which shaped his “textured, contradictory, troubling, and gratifying life.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 17, 2026
Or, worse still, he has proclaimed many objectives, some of them contradictory with one another, many of them inconsistent with objectives proclaimed by his top advisers, because they don’t know what his objectives are either.
From Slate • Mar. 13, 2026
It may sound contradictory, but these enormous voids are filled with the vacuum of spacetime.
From Science Daily • Mar. 10, 2026
The suit filed Monday in a California federal court alleges that Joby’s actions undermine national security and run contradictory to its branding as an “American-made” air-taxi manufacturer.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 9, 2026
They all talked at once, their voices insistent and contradictory and impatient, making of unreality a possibility, then a probability, then an incontrovertible fact, as people will when their desires become words.
From "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner
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.
