contrary

[kon-trer-ee; for 5 also kuhn-trair-ee]

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR contrary ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

opposite in nature or character; diametrically or mutually opposed: contrary to fact; contrary propositions.

opposite in direction or position: departures in contrary directions.

being the opposite one of two: I will make the contrary choice.

unfavorable or adverse.

perverse; stubbornly opposed or willful.

noun, plural con·trar·ies.

something that is contrary or opposite: to prove the contrary of a statement.

either of two contrary things.

Logic. a proposition so related to another proposition that both may not be true though both may be false, as with the propositions “All judges are male” and “No judges are male.”

adverb

in opposition; oppositely; counter: to act contrary to one's own principles.

Idioms

by contraries, contrary to expectation.

on the contrary,

in opposition to what has been stated.
from another point of view: On the contrary, there may be some who would agree with you.

to the contrary,

to the opposite effect: I believe he is innocent, whatever they may say to the contrary.
to a different effect.

Origin of contrary

1200–50; Middle English contrarie < Anglo-French < Latin contrārius. See contra¹, -ary

Related formscon·trar·i·ly

[kon-trer-uh-lee, kuhn-trair-] /ˈkɒn trɛr ə li, kənˈtrɛər-/, adverbcon·trar·i·ness, nounqua·si-con·trar·i·ly, adverbqua·si-con·trar·y, adjective

Synonyms for contrary

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR contrary ON THESAURUS.COM

1. contradictory, conflicting, counter. 4. unfriendly, hostile. 5. intractable, obstinate, headstrong, stubborn, pig-headed.

Synonym study

1. See opposite. 4. Contrary, adverse both describe something that opposes. Contrary conveys an idea of something impersonal and objective whose opposition happens to be unfavorable: contrary winds. Adverse suggests something more personally unfriendly or even hostile; it emphasizes the idea of the resulting misfortune to that which is opposed: The judge rendered a decision adverse to the defendant.

Antonyms for contrary

4. favorable. 5. obliging, complaisant.

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

Related Words for contraries

renunciation, antithesis, repudiation, contrary, reversal, proscription, nullity, blank, nonexistence, inverse, no, vacuity, nullification, converse, opposite, veto, void, refusal, opposition, antonym

Examples from the Web for contraries

Contemporary Examples of contraries

The title of the Donne poem is “Oh, to Vex Me, Contraries Meet as One.”
Cynthia Nixon on Bisexuality & Her New Role in ‘Wit’
Kevin Sessums
January 24, 2012

Historical Examples of contraries

And yet, I said, if friendship goes by contraries, the contraries must be friends.
Lysis
Plato
He was an impulsive young man, and sometimes he made up his mind by contraries.
Rope
Holworthy Hall
Poor Mrs. Elton laid no claim to the contraries of these epithets.
David Elginbrod
George MacDonald
Moreover, if these were contraries, they would themselves be contrary to themselves.
The Categories
Aristotle
Action and affection both admit of contraries and also of variation of degree.
The Categories
Aristotle

British Dictionary definitions for contraries

contrary

adjective

opposed in nature, position, etccontrary ideas

(kənˈtrɛərɪ) perverse; obstinate

(esp of wind) adverse; unfavourable

(of plant parts) situated at right angles to each other

logic (of a pair of propositions) related so that they cannot both be true at once, although they may both be false togetherCompare subcontrary (def. 2), contradictory (def. 3)

noun plural -ries

the exact opposite (esp in the phrase to the contrary)

on the contrary quite the reverse; not at all

either of two exactly opposite objects, facts, or qualities

logic a statement that cannot be true when a given statement is true

adverb (usually foll by to)

in an opposite or unexpected waycontrary to usual belief

in conflict (with) or contravention (of)contrary to nature

Derived Formscontrariness, noun

Word Origin for contrary

C14: from Latin contrārius opposite, from contrā against

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 contraries

contrary

adj.

mid-14c., from Anglo-French contrarie, from Latin contrarius "opposite, opposed," from contra "against" (see contra).

If we take the statement All men are mortal, its contrary is Not all men are mortal, its converse is All mortal beings are men, & its opposite is No men are mortal. The contrary, however, does not exclude the opposite, but includes it as its most extreme form. Thus This is white has only one opposite, This is black, but many contraries, as This is not white, This is coloured, This is dirty, This is black; & whether the last form is called the contrary, or more emphatically the opposite, is usually indifferent. But to apply the opposite to a mere contrary (e.g. to I did not hit him in relation to I hit him, which has no opposite), or to the converse (e.g. to He hit me in relation to I hit him, to which it is neither contrary nor opposite), is a looseness that may easily result in misunderstanding; the temptation to go wrong is intelligible when it is remembered that with certain types of sentence (A exceeds B) the converse & the opposite are identical (B exceeds A). [Fowler]

As a noun from late 13c. Related: Contrarily; contrariwise.

Idioms and Phrases with contraries

contrary

see on the contrary; to the contrary.