contrast

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English

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Etymology

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From French contraster, from Italian contrastare (to resist", "to withstand), from Vulgar Latin *contrāstāre, from Latin contrā (against) + stō, stāre (to stand).

Pronunciation

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Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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contrast (countable and uncountable, plural contrasts)

  1. (countable) A difference in lightness, brightness and/or hue between two colours that makes them more or less distinguishable.
    1. (uncountable) The degree of this difference.
      The red and the orange don't have much contrast between them — I can hardly tell them apart.
    2. (countable) A control on a television, etc, that adjusts the amount of contrast in the images being displayed.
  2. (countable) A difference between two objects, people or concepts.
    Israel is a country of many contrasts.
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone [the sponsor] long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 11:
      ... there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast.
  3. (countable) Something that is opposite of or strikingly different from something else.
    • 2001, David L. Lieber, Jules Harlow, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, page 746:
      Why this denunciation of idolatry at this point? And why are Shabbat and the sanctuary mentioned as contrasts to idol worship?
  4. (countable, uncountable, rhetoric) Antithesis.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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contrast (third-person singular simple present contrasts, present participle contrasting, simple past and past participle contrasted)

  1. (transitive) To set in opposition in order to show the difference or differences between; to counterpoint.
  2. (intransitive) To form a contrast.
    Foreground and background strongly contrast.
    • 1845, Charles Lyell, Lyell's Travels in North America:
      The joints which divide the sandstone contrast finely with the divisional planes which separate the basalt into pillars.

Antonyms

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  • (antonym(s) of to show difference): liken

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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Catalan

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Etymology

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Deverbal from contrastar. First attested in the 14th century.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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contrast m (plural contrasts or contrastos)

  1. contrast

References

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  1. ^ contrast”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024

Further reading

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Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French contraste, from Middle French contraste, from Italian contrasto.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /kɔnˈtrɑst/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: con‧trast
  • Rhymes: -ɑst

Noun

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contrast n (plural contrasten, diminutive contrastje n)

  1. a contrast
    Synonym: tegenstelling
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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French contraste.

Noun

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contrast n (plural contraste)

  1. contrast

Declension

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