contrary
Example Sentences
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"The judge made an express finding to the contrary," she said.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
Many investors believe the contrary because gold’s record as a bear market hedge has been better in recent decades than it was over the entire two centuries this new study analyzed—and memories are short.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
“The opening of the Strait of Hormuz is contrary to the obligations of the officials and is considered a strategic mistake,” the assembly said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
The news, on the contrary, helps prove that we can’t.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026
Mr. Lias, contrary to his usual nature, said next to nothing.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
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We grow up to discover there are names in every culture for that — yin and yang, the Apollonian and Dionysian, Vishnu and Shiva, thesis and antithesis, the law of contraries, the dialectic.
From New York Times ● Feb. 12, 2024
Art is made of contraries, of ambivalence and ambiguity; it never wants us to feel a single thing.
From The Guardian ● May 8, 2020
She revels in detail but writes vast, moral poems that help us live in a world of contraries in which “we hold still for the camera, believing/ it will shore up time, knowing it won’t.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 11, 2016
“The knowledge of contraries is one and the same,” as Aristotle said.
From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2014
One has to unlearn, for this special occasion, the art so necessary in ordinary society, of interpreting terms by their contraries.
From Tales from Blackwood Volume 9 by Various
Vocabulary lists containing contrary
Opposites Attract
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Against All Odds: Contra and Counter
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 16–19
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