English Dictionary

CONTRADICTION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does contradiction mean? 

CONTRADICTION (noun)
  The noun CONTRADICTION has 3 senses:

1. opposition between two conflicting forces or ideasplay

2. (logic) a statement that is necessarily falseplay

3. the speech act of contradicting someoneplay

  Familiarity information: CONTRADICTION used as a noun is uncommon.


 Dictionary entry details 


CONTRADICTION (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Opposition between two conflicting forces or ideas

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Hypernyms ("contradiction" is a kind of...):

oppositeness; opposition (the relation between opposed entities)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "contradiction"):

dialectic (a contradiction of ideas that serves as the determining factor in their interaction)


Sense 2

Meaning:

(logic) a statement that is necessarily false

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

contradiction; contradiction in terms

Context example:

the statement 'he is brave and he is not brave' is a contradiction

Hypernyms ("contradiction" is a kind of...):

falsehood; falsity; untruth (a false statement)

Domain category:

logic (the branch of philosophy that analyzes inference)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "contradiction"):

antinomy (a contradiction between two statements that seem equally reasonable)

paradox ((logic) a statement that contradicts itself)


Sense 3

Meaning:

The speech act of contradicting someone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

he spoke as if he thought his claims were immune to contradiction

Hypernyms ("contradiction" is a kind of...):

negation (the speech act of negating)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "contradiction"):

self-contradiction (contradicting yourself)

Derivation:

contradict (deny the truth of)


 Context examples 


Its inconsistencies, contradictions, and falsehood struck her from the very first.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

A stranger contradiction of qualities was never gathered under one hat.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Lovers' Vows!” in a tone of the greatest amazement, was his only reply to Mr. Rushworth, and he turned towards his brother and sisters as if hardly doubting a contradiction.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

"But where is the use of going on," I asked, "when you are probably preparing some iron blow of contradiction, or forging a fresh chain to fetter your heart?"

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

This was too true for contradiction.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

It would be tedious to repeat his arguments, and my contradictions.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

One day he would read a book of antiquated philosophy, and the next day one that was ultra-modern, so that his head would be whirling with the conflict and contradiction of ideas.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Whatever contradictions and inconsistencies there were within me, as there are within so many of us; whatever might have been so different, and so much better; whatever I had done, in which I had perversely wandered away from the voice of my own heart; I knew nothing of.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He flattered himself that he knew Jo pretty well, and was, therefore, much amazed by the contradictions of voice, face, and manner, which she showed him in rapid succession that day, for she was in half a dozen different moods in the course of half an hour.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

First of all, as to your return to my house after your most justifiable expulsion—he protruded his beard, and stared at me as one who challenges and invites contradiction—after, as I say, your well-merited expulsion.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
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"Some die; others bloom." (Corsican proverb)



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