contrastive
contrastively
The adjective contrastive means "showing the difference between two things when you compare them" — like a contrastive analysis of American and British English.
To contrast two things is to think about how they are different. So, the adjective contrastive is used to describe things that differ from one another. Contrastive colors in a painting can create an interesting image, while contrasting personalities can spark a feud. In language, contrastive words show contrast between two parts of a sentence; words like but and though are examples.
Definitions of contrastive
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strikingly different; tending to contrast
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synonyms:
contrasting
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different
unlike in nature, quality, form, or degree
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different
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of words so related that one contrasts with the other“`rich' and `hard-up' are contrastive terms”
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synonyms:
incompatible
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antonymous
of words: having opposite meanings
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antonymous
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syntactically establishing a relation of contrast between sentences or elements of a sentence“disjunctive conjunctions like `but', `or', or `though' serve a contrastive function”
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Synonyms:
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disjunctive
serving or tending to divide or separate
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disjunctive
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘contrastive'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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