Contradictory

How to spell contradictory

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce contradictory

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does contradictory mean?

1. adjectiveContaining or expressing claims that oppose one another and cannot both be true.

Contradictory in a sentence

• The two witnesses gave contradictory accounts of the accident.

• The report drew contradictory conclusions from the same set of figures.

Where does contradictory come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin contradicere, a verb that literally meant 'to speak against', formed from contra 'against' and dicere 'to say or speak'. From that verb Latin built the adjective contradictorius, used to describe statements that opposed or cancelled one another. English took it in through the late medieval and early modern period, by the fifteenth century, often in the language of logic and law where two claims could not both be true at once. The same dicere root gives us a whole family of familiar words, including 'dictate', 'predict', and 'verdict', all sharing the idea of speaking or stating. Remembering that the middle of the word is the same 'dict' as in 'dictionary' helps fix the spelling, while the contra- prefix keeps the sense of opposition clear.

How the word is built

• contra- (against)
• dict (from dicere: to say/speak)
• -ory (adjective suffix)