polar opposition
nounLinguistics.
the relation between a pair of antonyms that denote relatively higher and lower degrees of a quality with respect to an explicit or implicit norm rather than absolute values, as the relation between tall and short or light and dark, but not between true and false.
Words Nearby polar opposition
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use polar opposition in a sentence
No; it was a faculty in polar opposition to the true faculty of conversation.
The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. II (2 vols) | Thomas De QuinceyThe ideas 'unclean' and 'holy' seem to us to stand in polar opposition to one another, but it was not so with the Semites.
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 (of 6) | Havelock Ellis
Browse