Definition of contradict
transitive verb
1 : to assert the contrary of : take issue with contradict a rumor She contradicted her brother's account of what happened.
2 : to imply the opposite or a denial of Your actions contradict your words. The evidence contradicts his testimony.
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Examples of contradict in a Sentence
He contradicted the charges of his critics.
My sister doesn't like being contradicted.
The mayor's actions in office contradicted the promises he made during the campaign.
Recent Examples of contradict from the Web
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Drake's assertions contradict declarations filed in the case in March by former NSA director Michael Hayden and current NSA operations manager Wayne Murphy.
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The White House initially claimed Trump had acted on the Justice Department’s recommendation, only to be contradicted by Trump himself in a NBC interview the following day.
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Einstein's theories forbid this from happening to gravitational waves, and so far LIGO's measurements have yet to contradict them.
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That optimistic statement is contradicted by Yale University’s latest annual Environmental Performance Index.
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That contradicted his administration's previous assertions –
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Pence, who is extremely disciplined in his public remarks, might want to share another of his favorite Bible verses with a president who has a tendency to contradict and undercut his own staff with free-wheeling interviews and early morning tweets.
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Notice that the comment about LPRs contradicts the statement from the previous day about green-card holders.
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The findings seem self-evident to anyone — i.e., a certain science journalist — who’s ever crammed for days just to scratch out a C-minus in trigonometry, but contradict the conclusions of Great Britain’s national testing agency.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'contradict'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of contradict
Latin contradictus, past participle of contradicere, from contra- + dicere to say, speak — more at diction
Synonym Discussion of contradict
CONTRADICT Defined for English Language Learners
contradict
playDefinition of contradict for English Language Learners
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: to say the opposite of (something that someone else has said) : to deny the truth of (something)
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: to deny or disagree with what is being said by (someone)
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: to not agree with (something) in a way that shows or suggests that it is false, wrong, etc.
CONTRADICT Defined for Kids
contradict
playDefinition of contradict for Students
contradicted
;contradicting
1 : to deny the truth of a statement : say the opposite of what someone else has said “Jack's afraid of something,” Mary said. “Jack's not afraid of anything, ever!” Laura contradicted. — Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie
2 : to be opposed to Your actions contradict your words.
Word Root of contradict
The Latin word dicere, meaning “to say” or “to speak,” and its form dictus give us the root dict. Words from the Latin dicere have something to do with saying or speaking. To dictate is to say words that are to be written down by someone else. To contradict is to say the opposite of what someone else has said. To predict is to say what will happen before it does.
Learn More about contradict
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See words that rhyme with contradict Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for contradict Spanish Central: Translation of contradict Nglish: Translation of contradict for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of contradict for Arabic speakers
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