contradiction
Pluralcontradictions
- 1A logical inconsistency between two or more ideas, statements, or propositions.
The report contained a glaring contradiction between its data and its conclusions.
Critics pointed to several contradictions in the witness's testimony.
Similarinconsistency, discrepancy, conflict, incongruity, clash
Oppositeconsistency, agreement
Note
Here the clash is between separate things, such as data and conclusions or one part of a testimony and another. In the plural, the word can name tensions built into a whole system. Marx believed the contradictions of capitalism would lead to socialism, and in that use the clash is treated as something that drives change rather than as a mere error to correct.
- 2A statement that contradicts itself by claiming the same thing is both true and false, in the same sense and at the same time.
Saying that the box is empty and full at the same time is a contradiction.
Philosophers treat "a married bachelor" as a textbook contradiction.
Note
Here the fault lies inside a single claim, which asserts something and denies it at once: she can't be both married and single. The qualifiers matter, because a statement that only seems to clash may dissolve once a word is read in two senses. It usually sits in the frame there is a contradiction in, followed by what someone said. Compare inconsistency between separate claims.
- 3The act of contradicting; asserting the opposite of what someone else has stated.
He accepted the harsh review without contradiction.
Her flat contradiction of the official account surprised the reporters.
Similardenial, challenge, objection, rebuttal, refutation
Oppositeconfirmation, agreement, corroboration
Note
Latin contrādīcō, "speak against," is still audible here, because this is the sense in which a person does the contradicting. It works both ways grammatically. Uncountable, it names the practice, as in accepted without contradiction. Countable, it names a single instance and is usually followed by of, as in his contradiction of the proposal.
- 4A proposition that is false for every possible assignment of values to its variables.
The formula "P and not P" is a contradiction, false under every assignment of truth values.
Each row of the truth table confirmed that the expression was a contradiction.
Oppositetautology
Note
Logic gives the word a strictly formal meaning: the proposition is false because of its shape, whatever its parts say. P and not P fails on every row of its truth table, and checking every row is how the property is confirmed. It is the mirror image of a tautology, which is true on every row. Unlike the self-defeating statement, no rereading of the terms can rescue it.
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Origin
This word came through Middle English and Old French from Latin contrādictiō, which comes from contrādīcō meaning "speak against."