Complementary vs Opposite - What's the difference?
complementary | opposite |
Acting as a complement.
*
(genetics) Of the specific pairings of the bases in DNA and RNA.
(physics) Pertaining to pairs of properties in quantum mechanics that are inversely related to each other, such as speed and position, or energy and time. (See also Heisenberg uncertainty principle.)
A complementary colour.
(obsolete) One skilled in compliments.
Located directly across from something else, or from each other.
Facing in the other direction.
Of either of two complementary or mutually exclusive things.
Extremely different; inconsistent; contrary; repugnant; antagonistic.
* Dryden
* John Locke
Something opposite or contrary to another.
An opponent.
An antonym.
(mathematics) An additive inverse.
In an opposite position.
Facing, or across from.
:
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*:It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street.. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.
In a complementary role to.
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As adjectives the difference between complementary and opposite
is that complementary is acting as a complement while opposite is located directly across from something else, or from each other.As nouns the difference between complementary and opposite
is that complementary is a complementary colour while opposite is something opposite or contrary to another.As an adverb opposite is
in an opposite position.As a preposition opposite is
facing, or across from.complementary
English
(wikipedia complementary)Adjective
(en adjective)- Using the terminology we intro-
duced earlier, we might then say that black and white squares are in comple-
mentary distribution on a chess-board. By this we mean two things: firstly,
black squares and white squares occupy different positions on the board: and
secondly, the black and white squares complement each other in the sense that
the black squares together with the white squares comprise the total set of 64
squares found on the board (i.e. there is no square on the board which is not
either black or white).
Usage notes
* Complementary and complimentary are frequently confused and misused in place of one another.Derived terms
* complementarily * complementarity * complementary angle * complementary colour * complementary distributionNoun
(complementaries)- (Ben Jonson)
External links
* *opposite
English
Alternative forms
* (l) (archaic)Adjective
(-)- She saw him walking on the opposite side of the road.
- They were moving in opposite directions.
- He has a lot of success with the opposite sex.
- Novels, by which the reader is misled into another sort of pieasure opposite to that which is designed in an epic poem.
- Particles of speech have divers, and sometimes almost opposite , significations.
Derived terms
* opposite sexNoun
(en noun)- "Up" is the opposite of "down".
Derived terms
* opposites attractAdverb
(-)- I was on my seat and she stood opposite .