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.
3.
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.”
an·tith·e·sis (ān-tĭth'ĭ-sĭs) n.
pl.an·tith·e·ses (-sēz')
Direct contrast; opposition.
The direct or exact opposite: Hope is the antithesis of despair.
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).
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.]
1529, from L.L. antithesis, from Gk. antithesis "opposition," lit. "a placing against," noun of action from antitithenai "to set against, oppose," a term in logic, from anti- "against" + tithenai "to place," from PIE base *dhe- "to put, to do" (see factitious).