3 results for: Antitheses

an·tith·e·sis

Audio Help [an-tith-uh-sis] Pronunciation Key

–noun, plural -ses

1.	opposition; contrast: the antithesis of right and wrong.

2.	the direct opposite (usually fol. by of or to): Her behavior was the very antithesis of cowardly.

Rhetoric.

a.	the placing of a sentence or one of its parts against another to which it is opposed to form a balanced contrast of ideas, as in “Give me liberty or give me death.”

b.	the second sentence or part thus set in opposition, as “or give me death.”

4.	Philosophy. See under Hegelian dialectic.

[Origin: 1520–30; < L < Gk: opposition, equiv. to anti(ti)thé(nai) to oppose + -sis -sis. See anti-, thesis

]

—Synonyms 2. opposite, reverse.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

an·tith·e·sis Audio Help (ān-tĭth'ĭ-sĭs) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. an·tith·e·ses (-sēz')

Direct contrast; opposition.
The direct or exact opposite: Hope is the antithesis of despair.
1. A figure of speech in which sharply contrasting ideas are juxtaposed in a balanced or parallel phrase or grammatical structure, as in "Hee for God only, shee for God in him" (John Milton).
2. The second and contrasting part of such a juxtaposition.
The second stage of the Hegelian dialectic process, representing the opposite of the thesis.

[Late Latin, from Greek, from antitithenai, antithe-, to oppose : anti-, anti- + tithenai, to set; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.]