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contrast
[ verb kuhn-trast, kon-trast; noun kon-trast ]
verb (used with object)
- to compare in order to show unlikeness or differences; note the opposite natures, purposes, etc., of:
Contrast the political rights of Romans and Greeks.
Synonyms: oppose, distinguish, discriminate, differentiate
verb (used without object)
- to show striking difference when compared with or viewed alongside something else:
Youth leadership on the issue contrasts with government inaction.
The blue of the wood trim contrasts nicely with the pale yellow walls.
- Linguistics. to differ in a way that can serve to distinguish meanings:
The sounds (p) and (b) contrast in the words “pin” and “bin.”
noun
- a striking difference:
The study revealed interesting contrasts between people who regularly read books and those who don't.
- a person or thing that is strikingly different in comparison:
The weather down here is a welcome contrast to what we're having back home.
- opposition or juxtaposition of different formal elements in a work of art, music, or literature to intensify each element's properties and make the work more dynamically expressive:
The artist makes effective use of color contrast in the illustrations.
There’s a stark contrast of tempo in the sonata’s two movements.
- the act of comparing people or things so as to draw attention to striking differences between them:
Each essay topic involves the contrast of two of the novels studied in the course.
- Photography. the relative difference between light and dark areas of a print, digital photograph, or negative.
- the brightness ratio of the lightest to the darkest part of the screen image on a television, computer, or other electronic device.
- Linguistics. a difference between linguistic elements, especially sounds, that can serve to distinguish meanings.
contrast
verb
- often foll by with to distinguish or be distinguished by comparison of unlike or opposite qualities
noun
- distinction or emphasis of difference by comparison of opposite or dissimilar things, qualities, etc (esp in the phrases by contrast, in contrast to or with )
- a person or thing showing notable differences when compared with another
- (in painting) the effect of the juxtaposition of different colours, tones, etc
- (of a photographic emulsion) the degree of density measured against exposure used
- the extent to which adjacent areas of an optical image, esp on a television screen or in a photographic negative or print, differ in brightness
- psychol the phenomenon that when two different but related stimuli are presented close together in space and/or time they are perceived as being more different than they really are
Derived Forms
- conˈtrasting, adjective
- conˈtrastable, adjective
- conˈtrastively, adverb
- conˈtrastably, adverb
- conˈtrastive, adjective
Other Words From
- con·trast·a·ble adjective
- con·trast·a·bly adverb
- con·trast·ing·ly adverb
- qua·si-con·trast·ed adjective
- un·con·trast·a·ble adjective
- un·con·trast·a·bly adverb
- un·con·trast·ed adjective
- un·con·trast·ing adjective
- well-con·trast·ed adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of contrast1
Word History and Origins
Origin of contrast1
Idioms and Phrases
- in contrast, in comparison to something that is the opposite or strikingly different in some respect:
In contrast to personal computers, which are rare in that country, cell phones are widely available and even most children have their own.
- stand in contrast to / with, to show a striking difference when compared to or with:
The actor’s on-screen gun violence stands in contrast to her real-life persona as an advocate for gun control.
- by contrast. by contrast.
- compare and contrast. compare and contrast.
Example Sentences
By contrast, no song from SSA has ever hit the 300 million mark.
Inhibited children, in contrast, avoided chances to make friends in new situations and to stand out academically or socially in school.
By contrast, the “deoptimized” coronavirus has several hundred genetic changes.
In contrast, Biden did not travel Tuesday to South Florida, where there are signs he is struggling with the Cuban American community.
By contrast, our death rate is roughly 58 per 100,000 Americans, more than five times Germany’s per capita toll.
“After the New York mentality, it is the ultimate contrast to see people making things by hand,” he said.
In contrast, Boehner's leadership team filed into his ceremonial office and greeted the teary newly-elected Speaker with hugs.
By contrast, John McCain, the eventual GOP nominee, had raised approximately $12.7 million in the first quarter of 2007 alone.
In contrast to Paul, Huckabee has never palled around with Al Sharpton.
By contrast, a gun will allow a pilot to attack hostile forces that are less than 300 feet from friendly ground forces.
But the contrast thus presented is one that has acquired a new meaning in the age in which we live.
In contrast to the Widal, it begins to fade about the end of the second week, and soon thereafter entirely disappears.
This contrast implies a great wrong somewhere, and for which somebody must be responsible.
The contrast between the open street and the enclosed stuffiness of the dim and crowded interior was overwhelming.
His life had been the strangest contrast to the calm countenance which I saw so tranquilly listen to its own tale.
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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.
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