CONTRADICTION • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Contradiction

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/kˌɑntrədˈɪkʃən/ Listen

noun

Contradiction n.

An assertion of the contrary to what has been said or affirmed; denial of the truth of a statement or assertion; contrary declaration; gainsaying. "His fair demands Shall be accomplished without contradiction."

Direct opposition or repugnancy; inconsistency; incongruity or contrariety; one who, or that which, is inconsistent. "can he make deathless death? That were to make Strange contradiction." "We state our experience and then we come to a manly resolution of acting in contradiction to it." "Both parts of a contradiction can not possibly be true." "Of contradictions infinite the slave."

Principle of contradiction (Logic), the axiom or law of thought that a thing cannot be and not be at the same time, or a thing must either be or not be, or the same attribute can not at the same time be affirmed and and denied of the same subject; also called the law of the excluded middle. Note: It develops itself in three specific forms which have been called the "Three Logical Axioms." First, "A is A." Second, "A is not Not-A" Third, "Everything is either A or Not-A."

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Etymology of 'Contradiction'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Contradiction" Quotes from Famous Books

... distinguished, or beautiful and ugly, or precise and vague, or tender and harsh. And common-sense will therefore tell you that to try to set up vital contradictions between matter and style is absurd. When there is a superficial contradiction, one of the two mutually-contradicting qualities is of far less importance than the other. If you refer literature to the standards of life, common-sense will at once decide which quality should count heaviest in your esteem. You will be in no danger of weighing ...

— Literary Taste: How to Form It • Arnold Bennett

... would have been lasting. Death would not interrupt it, for death would end it. We could not, even then, suppose ourselves unhappy unless we dreaded unhappiness after death, and such an idea strikes me as absurd, for it is a contradiction of the idea of ...

— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... satisfying the demands of the most exacting of the creditors. The demonstrative perfumer, who told his dear Constance, with his head on her pillow, the smallest thoughts and feelings of his whole life, looking for the lights of her contradiction, and gathering courage as he did so, was now prevented from speaking of his situation to his head-clerk, his uncle, or his wife. His thoughts were therefore doubly heavy,—and yet the generous martyr preferred to suffer, rather than fling the fiery brand into the soul ...

— Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau • Honore de Balzac

... name."[11] Against the imputation of paradox, which such expressions expose him to, he has written his own defence, applying his usual analytical acuteness to distinguish between originality and singularity.[12] The contradiction of a common prejudice, which always passes for paradox, is often such only in appearance. It is true that an ingenious person may take advantage of the elusive nature of language to play tricks with the ordinary understanding, but it is equally true that words of ...

— Hazlitt on English Literature - An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature • Jacob Zeitlin

... a slight sound that might have been of indifferent assent or of contradiction. The other chose ...

— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves

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