Contradict
verbTo state the opposite of something, or to deny the truth of a statement someone has made.
How to spell contradict
10 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce contradict
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does contradict mean?
- verbTo state the opposite of something, or to deny the truth of a statement someone has made.
Contradict in a sentence
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The witness began to contradict her earlier testimony.
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New sales figures seem to contradict the manager's optimistic forecast.
Where does contradict come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word comes straight from the Latin contradicere, which literally meant 'to speak against'. It was built from the prefix contra, meaning 'against' or 'opposite', joined to the verb dicere, meaning 'to say' or 'to speak'. English adopted it in the late fourteenth century, originally in legal and religious contexts where one party formally disputed another's statement. The same dicere root sits inside a whole family of familiar words, including 'dictate', 'predict', 'verdict' and 'dictionary', so once you spot the 'dict' core you have a reliable spelling anchor. The trickier part is the unstressed middle vowel: it sounds like a faint 'uh', but it is written with an 'a' because of the contra prefix.
How the word is built
- contra- (against)
- dict (from Latin dicere: to speak, to say)
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