- [countable, uncountable] a lack of agreement between facts, opinions, actions, etc.
- contradiction (between A and B) There is a contradiction between the two sets of figures.
- How can we resolve this apparent contradiction?
- in contradiction to something His public speeches are in direct contradiction to his personal lifestyle.
Extra ExamplesTopics Opinion and argumentc1- That's in direct contradiction to what he said yesterday.
- There is an apparent contradiction between the needs of workers and those of employers.
- There's a basic contradiction in the whole idea of paying for justice.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- complete
- direct
- flat
- …
- in contradiction to
- in contradiction with
- contradiction between
- …
- a contradiction in terms
- [uncountable, countable] the act of saying that something that somebody else has said is wrong or not true; an example of this
- I think I can say, without fear of contradiction, that…
- contradiction of something Now you say you both left at ten—that's a contradiction of your last statement.
Word Originlate Middle English: via Old French from Latin contradictio(n-), from the verb contradicere, originally contra dicere ‘speak against’.
Idioms
See contradiction in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee contradiction in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englisha contradiction in terms
- a statement containing two words that contradict each other’s meaning
- A ‘nomad settlement’ is a contradiction in terms.
- The idea is almost a contradiction in terms.
Check pronunciation:
contradiction