corollary

noun cor·ol·lary \ ˈkȯr-ə-ˌler-ē , ˈkär- , -le-rē , British kə-ˈrä-lə-rē \

|Updated on: 14 Jul 2018

Editor's Note: The Origin and Evolution of corollary

Definition of corollary

plural corollaries

1 : a proposition (see ¹proposition 1c) inferred immediately from a proved proposition with little or no additional proof

2 a : something that naturally follows : result

… love was a stormy passion and jealousy its normal corollary.
—Ida Treat

b : something that incidentally or naturally accompanies or parallels

A corollary to the problem of the number of vessels to be built was that of the types of vessels to be constructed.
—Daniel Marx

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corollary

adjective

See corollary defined for English-language learners

See corollary defined for kids

Examples of corollary in a Sentence

one corollary of the rise of television was a massive makeover of radio's programming
increased taxes—or expanding deficits—are the inevitable corollary to any new government spending program

Recent Examples of corollary from the Web

The corollary to that is there is another way to do politics.

— danielle tcholakian, Longreads, "An Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Reading List," 10 July 2018
But there is also a corollary at play to the traditional Orwellianism: a kind of emotional doublespeak.

— megan garber, The Atlantic, "How to Look Away," 20 June 2018
Is there a corollary for men, a genre of self-help books aimed at helping men cope with the stigma of their living-alone status?

— ashley fetters, Curbed, "Living alone and liking it," 20 June 2018
Foreigners are also unlikely to have suffered much direct harm from the fall in bond prices (the corollary of rising yields).

— The Economist, "Italy’s political crisis is roiling financial markets once more," 31 May 2018
There might be a corollary to the 2014 Spurs — a veteran team haunted by the previous year’s disappointment — but Utah didn’t have an emerging Kawhi Leonard.

— mike finger, San Antonio Express-News, "Finals to add new layer to Jordan-James debate," 30 May 2018
But there is an inevitable corollary to this solitary quest, a lesson that my tree-climbing habit taught me over and over again: It’s harder to go down than up.

— josephine livingstone, The New Republic, "Shaking the Tree," 30 May 2018
Americans overwhelmingly believe that everyone who can work should work, and the obvious corollary is that everyone who wants to work should be able to find a job.

— livia gershon, Longreads, "More than Make-Work," 22 May 2018
And a corollary that many Republicans outside of Congress are asking: Who would want to?

— philip elliott, Time, "The House GOP Is in Chaos," 21 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'corollary.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

The Origin and Evolution of corollary

Corollary comes from the Late Latin noun corollarium, which can be translated as "a garland given as a reward." "Corollarium" comes from the Latin corolla, meaning "small crown or garland." If you know that a garland or small crown was sometimes given to actors in addition to their pay, it makes sense that another sense of "corollarium" is "gratuity." Later, "corollarium" developed the philosophical sense of a supplementary proposition that follows directly from one that has been proved. (You can think of a corollary as a "bonus" that follows from the proof of something else.) The broader modern sense, "something that naturally follows," evolved from the philosophical one.