contradictory
asserting the contrary or opposite; contradicting; inconsistent; logically opposite: contradictory statements.
tending or inclined to contradict.
Logic. a proposition so related to a second that it is impossible for both to be true or both to be false.
Origin of contradictory
1Other words for contradictory
Other words from contradictory
- con·tra·dic·to·ri·ly, adverb
- con·tra·dic·to·ri·ness, noun
- in·ter·con·tra·dic·to·ry, adjective
- non·con·tra·dic·to·ry, adjective, noun, plural non·con·tra·dic·to·ries.
- un·con·tra·dic·to·ry, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use contradictory in a sentence
And, indeed, geology gives us an answer; but it reads contradictorily: It says yes, and it says no.
Her clothes conceal and reveal, artfully and contradictorily and endlessly.
I, Mary MacLane | Mary MacLaneBut those others of them who intermeddle in state affairs act yet more contradictorily to their own doctrines.
Essays and Miscellanies | PlutarchThe dying confessions are contradictorily reported, and all the reports are worthless.
The Mystery of Mary Stuart | Andrew LangHe was to be taught to understand—nay, angelically he would understand at once—why she had behaved apparently so contradictorily.
The Tragic Comedians, Complete | George Meredith
British Dictionary definitions for contradictory
/ (ˌkɒntrəˈdɪktərɪ) /
inconsistent; incompatible
given to argument and contention: a contradictory person
logic (of a pair of statements) unable both to be true or both to be false under the same circumstances: Compare contrary (def. 5), subcontrary (def. 1)
logic a statement that cannot be true when a given statement is true or false when it is false
Derived forms of contradictory
- contradictorily, adverb
- contradictoriness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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