corollary

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

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 unsettling corollary of that is the gap between what is seen and believed -- filtered through today's age of media divided into ideological silos -- has, seemingly, only grown wider.

— brian lowry, CNN, "LA riots previewed age of viral video," 19 July 2017
Freedom of speech embodies not only the right to speak, but also its corollary: the right not to speak.

— ethan blevins, National Review, "Should Landlords Be Forced to Subsidize Others’ Speech?," 14 July 2017
With fiery disputes over discovery erupting practically every week, Waymo's patent case was a kind of corollary to the main show.

— joe mullin, Ars Technica, "Waymo drops most of its patent case against Uber," 7 July 2017
The corollary is that propriety depends, to an extent, on circumstances, and this was an idea that McMaster leaned on heavily in his recitation of rationalizations for Trump’s behavior at the meeting.

— amy davidson, The New Yorker, "H. R. McMaster and Appropriate Presidential Behavior," 16 May 2017
There's a serious love-versus-money romantic conflict in the play that always seems to have some current-events corollary; when Tresnjak did it in Boston, the Enron scandal was brewing.

— christopher arnott, courant.com, "Hartford Stage Takes On Challenge Of Steering Shaw's 'Heartbreak House'," 11 May 2017
As a corollary, the percentage of white voters was at a new low of 73.3 percent.

— philip bump, Washington Post, "2016 saw the most diverse electorate in history — with an election-defining caveat," 11 May 2017
The corollary is that anyone who does it more than once is a fool.

— gilles mingasson, Smithsonian, "Why Mount Fuji Endures As a Powerful Force in Japan," 2 May 2017
For some observers, the Burkini affair may have suggested an unspoken corollary: Perhaps the French are helping to bring this terrorist hatred on themselves.

— robert f. worth, New York Times, "The Professor and the Jihadi," 5 Apr. 2017

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.