contrary
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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It appears that many of these fossils can’t be referred to South African species either, contrary to earlier assumptions.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026
He accused them of having "breached their duties, performed actions contrary to the art of healing" and having "omitted all the acts they were required to perform."
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
The charges cover a period between 26 November 2024 and 21 May 2025 and allege conduct "in preparation for committing an offence of disclosing protected information" contrary to the act.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
There is certainly salient evidence to the contrary: During the dot-com boom, the New York Stock Exchange advance-decline line peaked in 1998, data showed.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
"Ah," said the magistrate, who, contrary to the emperor's words, was not a fool.
From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin
We grow up to discover there are names in every culture for that — yin and yang, the Apollonian and Dionysian, Vishnu and Shiva, thesis and antithesis, the law of contraries, the dialectic.
From New York Times ● Feb. 12, 2024
Art is made of contraries, of ambivalence and ambiguity; it never wants us to feel a single thing.
From The Guardian ● May 8, 2020
She revels in detail but writes vast, moral poems that help us live in a world of contraries in which “we hold still for the camera, believing/ it will shore up time, knowing it won’t.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 11, 2016
“The knowledge of contraries is one and the same,” as Aristotle said.
From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2014
"Dreams go by contraries," quotes Miss Priscilla, sententiously.
From Airy Fairy Lilian by Margaret Wolfe Hamilton (AKA Duchess)
Vocabulary lists containing contrary
Opposites Attract
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Against All Odds: Contra and Counter
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 16–19
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