Difference vs Contrary - What's the difference?
difference | contrary |
(uncountable) The quality of being different.
(countable) A characteristic of something that makes it different from something else.
* {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty
, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist)
(countable) A disagreement or argument.
* Shakespeare
* T. Ellwood
(countable, uncountable) Significant change in or effect on a situation or state.
* 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)
(countable) The result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result.
(obsolete) Choice; preference.
* Spenser
(heraldry) An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish two people's bearings which would otherwise be the same. See augmentation and cadency.
(logic) The quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia.
(logic circuits) A Boolean operation which is TRUE when the two input variables are different but is otherwise FALSE; the XOR operation ().
(relational algebra) the set of elements that are in one set but not another ().
To distinguish or differentiate.
Opposite; in an opposite direction; in opposition; adverse.
* Bible, Leviticus xxvi. 21
* Shakespeare
Opposed; contradictory; inconsistent.
* Whewell
Given to opposition; perverse; wayward.
The opposite.
* Shakespeare
One of a pair of propositions that cannot both be simultaneously true.
* I. Watts
(obsolete) To oppose; to frustrate.
*Bishop Latimer
*:I was advised not to contrary the king.
*, I.47:
*:The Athenians having left the enemie in their owne land, for to pass into Sicilie , had very ill successe, and were much contraried by fortune.
(obsolete) To impugn.
(obsolete) To contradict (someone or something).
*:
*:thus wilfully sir Palomydes dyd bataille with yow / & as for hym sir I was not gretely aferd but I dred fore la?celot that knew yow not / Madame said Palomydes ye maye saye what so ye wyll / I maye not contrary yow but by my knyghthode I knewe not sir Tristram
*, II.12:
*:I finde them everie one in his turne to have reason, although they contrary one another.
(obsolete) To do the opposite of (someone'' or ''something ).
(obsolete) To act inconsistently or perversely; to act in opposition to .
(obsolete) To argue; to debate; to uphold an opposite opinion.
(obsolete) To be self-contradictory; to become reversed.
As nouns the difference between difference and contrary
is that difference is difference while contrary is the opposite.As an adjective contrary is
opposite; in an opposite direction; in opposition; adverse.As an adverb contrary is
contrarily.As a verb contrary is
(obsolete) to oppose; to frustrate.difference
English
Noun
citation, passage=But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}
- We have our little differences , but we are firm friends.
- What was the difference ? It was a contention in public.
- Away therefore went I with the constable, leaving the old warden and the young constable to compose their difference as they could.
- The line of the horizon was clear and hard against the sky, and in one particular quarter it showed black against a silvery climbing phosphorescence that grew and grew. At last, over the rim of the waiting earth the moon lifted with slow majesty till it swung clear of the horizon and rode off, free of moorings; and once more they began to see surfaces—meadows wide-spread, and quiet gardens, and the river itself from bank to bank, all softly disclosed, all washed clean of mystery and terror, all radiant again as by day, but with a difference that was tremendous.
- That now be chooseth with vile difference / To be a beast, and lack intelligence.
Synonyms
* (characteristic of something that makes it different from something else) departure, deviation, divergence * (disagreement or argument about something important) conflict, difference of opinion, dispute, dissension * (result of a subtraction) remainder * (significant change in state) nevermindAntonyms
* (quality of being different) identity, samenessDerived terms
* distinction without a difference * creative differences * difference engine * difference equation * difference gate * difference of two squares * goal difference * same difference * split the difference * spot the difference * tell the differenceSee also
* addition, summation: (augend) + (addend) = (summand) × (summand) = (sum, total) * subtraction: (minuend) ? (subtrahend) = (difference) * multiplication: (multiplier) × (multiplicand) = (factor) × (factor) = (product) * division: (dividend) ÷ (divisor) = (quotient), remainder left over if divisor does not divide dividendVerb
(differenc)- (en)
Synonyms
* (to distinguish or differentiate) differentiate, distinguishExternal links
* * ----contrary
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- contrary winds
- And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me
- We have lost our labour; they are gone a contrary way.
- The doctrine of the earth's motion appeared to be contrary to the sacred Scripture.
- a contrary''' disposition; a '''contrary child
Derived terms
* contrarian * contrarily * contrariwise * contrary toNoun
(contraries)- No contraries hold more antipathy / Than I and such a knave.
- If two universals differ in quality, they are contraries ; as, every vine is a tree; no vine is a tree. These can never be both true together; but they may be both false.