Contradicted

How to spell contradicted

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce contradicted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does contradicted mean?

1. verbStated the opposite of something, or asserted that a claim was untrue.

Contradicted in a sentence

• The witness contradicted her earlier statement to the police.

• The new sales figures contradicted everything the manager had promised.

Where does contradicted come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb contradicere, which literally meant 'to speak against', formed from contra meaning 'against' or 'opposite' and dicere meaning 'to say' or 'to speak'. In Roman usage it carried the sense of objecting to or denying what someone else had asserted. English picked it up in the late fourteenth century, partly through legal and theological writing where formally denying a statement mattered a great deal. The same dicere root quietly powers a whole family of English words, including 'dictate', 'predict', 'verdict', and 'dictionary', all of which involve saying or telling. Remembering that the middle is 'dict' (to say), preceded by 'contra' (against), keeps the spelling honest: it is the act of saying something against another claim.

How the word is built

• contra- (against)
• dict (from Latin dicere: to say, speak)
• -ed (past tense suffix)