Oxford English and Spanish Dictionary, Synonyms, and Spanish to English Translator

Home UK English contrary

Meaning of contrary in English:

contrary

Pronunciation /ˈkɒntrəri/ /kənˈtrɛːri/

See synonyms for contrary

Translate contrary into Spanish

adjective

1Opposite in nature, direction, or meaning.
‘he ignored contrary advice and agreed on the deal’
- ‘Arthur is always good for a contrary point of view.’
- ‘Surprisingly, they've published a few letters to the editor saying how good the new paper looks but none putting a contrary point of view!’
- ‘And they want the option to go out and get more information, or to seek a contrary point of view.’
- ‘According to this contrary view, the key to uniqueness, whether in robots or human beings, is a matter of nurture or history rather than of nature.’
- ‘But having said all of that, the very strong judicial disposition, worked out over a long time and in cases that far precede me, take a contrary view.’
- ‘Voting with the party where a contrary belief isn't deeply held is another thing entirely!’
- ‘The question is if one made a contrary assumption, what assumption does one make?’
- ‘As to that, the contrary assumption is really more plausible.’
- ‘I tried many times to phrase and re-phrase my contrary reply before finally throwing my pen down in disgust.’
- ‘The first is that the case for natural, harmonious diversity might be overcome, if enough people decide to act on contrary assumptions.’
- ‘I saw that the Clerk was giving you contrary advice, but I actually think the appropriate course of action, once a member calls for a vote, is for a vote to be held.’
- ‘At the same time, however, China's economic managers were sending a contrary message.’
- ‘Telling people how to behave is one thing, but telling them what to believe means invading every intellectual nook and cranny in order to root out contrary ideas.’
- ‘Brown and the library board have cited no cases to us which have reached a contrary conclusion under similar facts, and we have found none.’
- ‘In fact, several influential commentators offer a contrary assessment that links globalization to new forms of cultural expression.’
- ‘Behind racism is a sort of double-think that renders belief in the determining importance of race immune to contrary evidence.’
- ‘I find it hard to understand the contrary position, but I would not argue against it.’
- ‘I'm not going to assert my contrary opinion in the face of counterveiling evidence that is sound.’
- ‘Still, how one marshals the evidence, how one organizes and presents it, and how one treats contrary evidence are always major components of a good answer.’
- ‘As is well known, established theories are seldom challenged by contrary evidence until a competing theory has overwhelming support.’
opposite, opposing, opposed, contradictory, clashing, conflicting, antithetical, incompatible, irreconcilable
View synonyms
1. 1.1(of two or more statements, beliefs, etc.) opposed to one another.
  ‘his mother had given him contrary messages’
  ‘These lower court statements do not, however, strike me as that persuasive, especially given the contrary statements by the Supreme Court.’
  ‘In spite of contrary statements from others in the administration, Cheney is still insisting.’
  ‘But others resist because they hold contrary beliefs about their vocation as educators.’
  ‘He further highlighted that we can test general statements by searching for contrary instances.’
  ‘Depending on which procedural principle one adopts, contrary answers are forthcoming.’
  ‘There are two contrary opinions about the information.’
  ‘He was concerned that a member of the medical profession completed two forms which gave contrary certifications in this particular case.’
  ‘Throughout history, there have always been two contrary elements in many of the major religions of the world.’
  ‘Once the manufacturers have a handset to offer, the networks often make contrary commercial decisions about which phones they actually approve for national release.’
  ‘Graham forces the viewer to experience, at one and the same time, two intensely contrary feelings - deadpan irony and keen longing.’
  ‘Critics, however, make two contrary arguments.’
  ‘Hahn's musical personality unites two contrary impulses: youthful ardor and a patrician elegance.’
  ‘These two approaches lead to contrary conclusions.’
  ‘When two contrary elements are juxtaposed, the sudden surprise catches us off guard.’
  ‘Pluralism says that it is fine for us to have different or even contrary views about religion and this does not have to be a problem.’
  ‘As a contrast, the next chapter is devoted to the conflicting and contrary views of the Jews during the same time period.’
  ‘Michael Fleming then pointed out that ‘there are contrary views out there’.’
  ‘Of course, there are contrary opinions on that.’
  ‘The economies of art move in contrary directions: the closer you are to the original creative act the smaller the returns tend to be.’
  ‘They walked on, the brief exchange causing their moods to drift in contrary directions.’
2. 1.2(of a wind) blowing in the opposite direction to one's course; unfavourable.
  ‘Then, a week from the finish, contrary winds forced her to again change landfalls, this time to Guadeloupe.’
  ‘Not many miles away another little ship was slipping through the water, fitfully tacking against the contrary wind, seeking an easterly path.’
  ‘Moreover, the ships transporting his cavalry were beset with contrary winds, and were never to make a landfall in Britain.’
  ‘As one of the leading open meetings in the region, their youngsters missed out on a high quality competition in gloriously warm weather, despite the contrary wind in the home straight.’
  ‘When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.’
  ‘But it can also close ranks and work together when faced with contrary winds.’
  ‘Caravels, used by Colón to reach America, were valued by voyagers for their speed and ease of steering in contrary winds.’
  ‘A second dive and a contrary wind gave John Liddiard the chance to sample one of the Red Sea's lesser-known wrecks.’
3. 1.3Logic (of two propositions) so related that one or neither but not both must be true.
  Compare with contradictory
  ‘Propositions are contrary when they cannot both be true.’
  ‘In neither of these cases, however, was the contrary proposition argued.’
2Perversely inclined to disagree or to do the opposite of what is expected or desired.
‘she is sulky and contrary where her work is concerned’
- ‘Sometimes I think he arbitrarily disagrees with me just to be contrary.’
- ‘No surprise then that writers so often prove such a stubborn, contrary lot.’
- ‘For instance, living and making his career in Washington seems like an especially stubborn and contrary thing to do.’
- ‘And so the picture began to build up of an obstinate, contrary old man, with a fixed idea which no one could dislodge.’
- ‘And all of them could be bloody-minded and contrary, helping you one minute but ignoring you the next.’
- ‘I'm sure that my contrary nature contributed to my insistence upon always choosing the story option, but mostly I just enjoyed writing fiction.’
- ‘Its strength is not disavowed by its disparate and often contrary nature.’
- ‘I think everybody has a very contrary element in their nature, a counter to the everyday.’
- ‘But Jack had forgotten the contrary nature of his squad.’
- ‘Is it her willful, contrary nature that comes out?’
- ‘What is more, teenagers being teenagers, the response is rather contrary.’
- ‘Not that I'm anti-capitalist, you understand, so much as just generally contrary.’
- ‘I'm not just being contrary in answering negatively, but it so happens that this is the most misunderstood government in years.’
- ‘Perhaps it is my contrary Scottish highlander nature, but I see the scoring change as a very positive step for the professional game, if a little overdue.’
perverse, awkward, difficult, uncooperative, unhelpful, obstructive, disobliging, unaccommodating, unreasonable, troublesome, tiresome, annoying, vexatious, disobedient, recalcitrant, refractory, wilful, headstrong, self-willed, capricious, wayward, cross-grained
View synonyms

nouncontraries

1the contraryThe opposite.
‘an Act applies only to the United Kingdom unless the contrary is expressed’
- ‘We have thirty years of evidence to prove the contrary.’
- ‘Documented proof is available which will have to be produced to prove the contrary.’
- ‘But if they fail to prove this it seems superfluous, and indeed illogical, to require the accused to prove the contrary on a balance of probabilities.’
- ‘Worse, it is hard to imagine any way either to prove this or to prove the contrary.’
- ‘If it weren't true, the US would have gleefully demonstrated the contrary.’
- ‘He starts out by putting this in a negative way: the contrary would happen ‘very rarely’.’
- ‘One possible interpretation of the words is that he wished to maintain the claim that children had been thrown overboard and did not want to examine evidence which might indicate the contrary.’
- ‘But all existing evidence indicates the contrary.’
- ‘Let us remember first and foremost that a very close election result that even necessitated a recount of the votes is the sign of democracy rather than the contrary.’
- ‘There may be some success stories here and there, but overall, it seems to be accepted that the trend is a downwards one rather than the contrary if our results are anything to judge by.’
- ‘So although some journalism professors may worry that military embedding is subverting the media, I would argue the contrary.’
- ‘Some authors promote the idea that maladjustment, particularly in later life, is virtually inevitable while others argue the contrary.’
- ‘I have never written anything to indicate the contrary.’
- ‘All evidence to this point would indicate the contrary.’
- ‘This was just the contrary of what all the sources were saying.’
- ‘Any editor worth his or her salt would have taken issue with journalists if they hadn't left the chamber for such an event, rather than the contrary.’
- ‘There is simply no legal or linguistic rule that says the contrary.’
- ‘Well, their study may say that but the study that we've done indicates the contrary.’
- ‘Now it appears that the infallible litmus test of whether one is on the right track is whether most people think the contrary.’
- ‘Of course, the reality is precisely the contrary of this.’
opposite, reverse, converse, antithesis
View synonyms
2Logic
A contrary proposition.
‘For what are contraries cannot coincide in one and the same subject.’
- ‘So, certainly ‘traditional definitions’ of masculine and feminine need to be re-evaluated because they are based on a faulty understanding of an illusory division amongst contraries.’
- ‘This is a clear instance of oppositional reasoning by contraries.’

Phrases

on the contrary

Used to intensify a denial of what has just been implied or stated by suggesting that the opposite is the case.
‘there was no malice in her; on the contrary, she was very kind’
- ‘The costumes of the gentlemen guests, on the contrary, were rather dull and too modern-looking.’
- ‘And quite the contrary, we have increased oil production.’
- ‘And that doesn't make them stupid or insular; quite the contrary, it's a pretty stupid and insular movie in the first place.’
- ‘That is not to say that the film is bad, quite the contrary.’
- ‘But I was pleasantly surprised when I found that this was quite the contrary.’
- ‘I would argue that the evidence shows quite the contrary and I will lay out some of that evidence here.’
- ‘There is nothing disreputable or sinister in this, quite the contrary.’
- ‘Your needs do not decrease on retirement, quite the contrary.’
- ‘A liberal secular constitution does not mean intolerance for religious beliefs - quite the contrary.’

to the contrary

With the opposite meaning or implication.
‘he continued to drink despite medical advice to the contrary’
- ‘Those instincts were obviously sound, despite evidence to the contrary.’
- ‘They've been denying it existed despite obvious evidence to the contrary.’
- ‘Delusions are false beliefs which are held despite evidence to the contrary.’
- ‘Despite the evidence to the contrary, the Lord Mayor was not too concerned by what he was told.’
- ‘And while it may be tempting to take the apocalyptic view, there is ample evidence to the contrary.’
- ‘We can no longer fool ourselves that smoking will not harm us if we continue - there is too much evidence to the contrary.’
- ‘None of the correspondents has provided any evidence to the contrary.’
- ‘There is an increasingly persuasive body of evidence and learned opinion to the contrary.’
- ‘Some consider this of negligible importance, but sound evidence exists to the contrary.’
- ‘So if you can cite some evidence to the contrary, then that would be interesting.’

contrary to

Conflicting with or running counter to.
‘contrary to his expectations, he found the atmosphere exciting’
- ‘It is counterintuitive and contrary to everything that we have been told.’
- ‘Yet such efforts will necessarily run contrary to British sympathies and our attitudes to the state.’
- ‘And contrary to popular belief, the employees work all year round to make the poppies.’
- ‘He refused to comment on the nature of his release and insisted he had not been shot, contrary to earlier reports.’
- ‘The results of my attempts to do this are interesting and run contrary to much popular belief.’
- ‘I know all the arguments in favour of that view but see them as contrary to all human experience.’
- ‘Over the last decade, however, they have become known for a role contrary to their original intent.’
- ‘They are strong, redolent of the dignity of human life, and contrary to many images of female nudity.’
- ‘The findings seem to be quite contrary to the general belief that smoking is on the rise.’
- ‘It would come across as being contrary to the romantic notion of the sharing of wine.’