contrary
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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Asked whether he expected the situation to improve, Blume said "on the contrary, we have to assume that risks will get worse, worldwide".
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
In fact, there is slight evidence to the contrary — that the postmidterm rally is stronger when the market is also strong prior to the midterms.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 22, 2026
He said: "The defender conceded that the defender discriminated against the pursuer, contrary to the provisions of the Equalities Act."
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Retailers’ sales fell by 0.6% last month to $763.6 billion, contrary to economists’ expectations of a small increase.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
On the contrary, the older player always showed the younger one affection and respect, often sending him friendly little notes and asides.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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
Sure it has been Gayville's madness or amusement then to describe her by contraries.
From The Heiress; a comedy, in five acts by John Burgoyne
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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