Contrast
nounA striking difference between two or more things when they are compared.
How to spell contrast
8 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce contrast
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does contrast mean?
- nounA striking difference between two or more things when they are compared.
- verbTo compare two things in order to highlight their differences.
Contrast in a sentence
-
noun
The contrast between the two job offers made the decision easy.
-
verb
The essay asks students to compare and contrast the two novels.
-
noun
She adjusted the contrast on the monitor so the text was easier to read.
-
verb
The bright walls contrast sharply with the dark furniture.
Where does contrast come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word traces back to the Latin verb contrastare, formed from contra, meaning 'against', and stare, meaning 'to stand'; the combined sense was 'to stand against' or 'to oppose'. It passed into Italian as contrastare and then into Old French as contraster before reaching English. When it first appeared in English in the late 1600s it was largely a technical term in painting and drawing, describing the deliberate placing of light and dark or differing forms side by side for visual effect. From that artistic use it broadened into the general modern meaning of any striking difference set against something else. The same contra root, simply meaning 'against', survives in plain sight in relatives such as 'contradict' and 'contrary', which is a useful reminder of why the spelling keeps that 'contra' block intact.
How the word is built
- contra- (against)
- -st (from stare, to stand): literally to stand against
Fix your spelling for good.
Spelling Garden finds the words you personally get wrong, plants them in a garden, and brings each one back just before you would have forgotten it.
Just five minutes a day is all it takes to fix your spelling.