contrariety

American  

[kon-truh-rahy-i-tee] / ˌkɒn trəˈraɪ ɪ ti /

noun

• contrarieties
  plural

1. the quality or state of being contrary.

2. something contrary or of opposite character; a contrary fact or statement.

3. Logic. the relation between contraries.

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contrariety British  

/ ˌkɒntrəˈraɪətɪ /

noun

1. opposition between one thing and another; disagreement

2. an instance of such opposition; inconsistency; discrepancy

3. logic the relationship between two contraries

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• noncontrariety
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• contrarieties
  plural

Etymology

Origin of contrariety

1350–1400; Middle English contrariete (< Anglo-French ) < Late Latin contrārietās. See contrary, -ity

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

contrariety contrarieties

At any other time, moved by the sheer and wanton contrariety of her disposition, Constance would have declined to profit by this concession—would have delighted to stand by and deftly add fuel to the fire.

From Fordham's Feud by Bertram Mitford

My heart, with astounding contrariety, yearned after the other little languid, untidy, almost unkempt Judy, as one longs in sorrow for the old scenes and surroundings of happier, dearer days.

From The Claw by Cynthia Stockley

The whole force of the contrast and contrariety between the Colossian Christians’ past and present lies in that emphatic “now.”

From The Expositor's Bible: Colossians and Philemon by Alexander Maclaren

Adversative, ad-vėrs′a-tiv, adj. denoting opposition, contrariety, or variety.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

And yet, at the same moment, with a contrariety of feeling from which he shrank aghast, there was skulking into his mind all that grewsome company of doubts.

From The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains by Mary Noailles Murfree

But he was much more; as Louis Kronenberger points out in his introduction to this handy Portable, Boswell was both a kind of genius and "a tissue of contrarieties."

From Time Magazine Archive

With Martin, who has just been released after serving a prison term, Ayme takes a dreamlike but invigorating stroll through the contrarieties of Western society.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mr. Sharpe shook his head as if to clear it of contrarieties.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson

Surely there never was a day more crammed with contrarieties.

From The Silent Barrier by Louis Tracy

I have had a most severe task full of contrarieties what I did one way was undone another.

From Life of John Keats His Life and Poetry, his Friends, Critics and After-fame by Sidney Colvin