contrapositive

[kon-truh-poz-i-tiv]Logic.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR contrapositive ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

of or relating to contraposition.

noun

a contrapositive statement of a proposition.

Origin of contrapositive

First recorded in 1855–60; contraposit(ion) + -ive

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for contrapositive

antipode, antithesis, contrary, converse, counter, inverse, reverse

Examples from the Web for contrapositive

Historical Examples of contrapositive

Every positive in thought has a contrapositive, and the positive and contrapositive are of the same kind.
Logic, Inductive and Deductive
William Minto
For a Disjunctive in I., of course, there is no Contrapositive.
Logic
Carveth Read
In the case of the I proposition the contrapositive is impossible, as infringing the main rule of conversion.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 3
Various
There is an apparent exception to this when the real Middle in an argument is a contrapositive term, not-M.
Logic, Inductive and Deductive
William Minto

British Dictionary definitions for contrapositive

contrapositive

adjective

placed opposite or against

noun

logic

a conditional statement derived from another by negating and interchanging antecedent and consequent
a categorial proposition obtained from another, esp validly, by any of a number of operations including negation, transferring the terms, changing their quality, and also possibly weakening from universal to particular

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for contrapositive

adj.

1858 (implied in contrapositively), from Latin contraposit-, past participle stem of contraponere (see contraposition) + -ive.