CONTRADICTION • DICTIONARY ONE.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

... truth) motion number'd out his time And like an engine moved with wheel and weight, His principles being ceased, he ended straight. Rest, that gives all men life, gave him his death, And too much breathing put him out of breath; Nor were it contradiction to affirm, Too long vacation hasten'd on his term. Merely to drive the time away he sicken'd, Fainted, and died, nor would with ale be quicken'd; "Nay," quoth he, on his swooning bed outstretch'd, "If I mayn't carry, sure I'll ne'er be fetch'd, But vow, ...

— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various

... explained; 'there is no such thing as feeling: therefore, to speak of a non-existent thing as existent as a contradiction. Matter has no existence; nothing exists but mind; the mind cannot feel pain, it can only ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... there is no saying with what clear and beneficent lustre might have shone that light of aspiration which during his turbid youth burned somewhat luridly, and veiled its radiance in the smoke of mere rebelliousness and contradiction. ...

— Percy Bysshe Shelley • John Addington Symonds

... her lover's defeat, threw him a glance of intense contradiction, then lowered her eyes, for she felt her face ...

— Gerfaut, Complete • Charles de Bernard

... that his statue is still to be seen in front of the great church. He rejoiced, while living, in the name of Laurentius Castero; and, however much you may be surprised at the claims advanced in his favour, you are hereby strictly cautioned to offer no contradiction to the boastings of his overjoyed compatriots—they are prouder of his glory than of their beer. But his merits did not stop short at casting types. In addition to his enormous learning and profound information, he possessed an almost ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 334, August 1843 • Various

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