contraries
- 1Plural of contrary.
The philosopher sorted the world into pairs of contraries: light and dark, good and evil.
Two contraries cannot both be true, though they may both turn out false.
Note
The y-to-ies plural belongs only to the noun. The adjective contrary, as in a contrary wind or a contrary child, never takes a plural. In the plural the word sets opposites side by side. Defoe writes in Robinson Crusoe that we never see our condition "till it is illustrated to us by its contraries." F. Marion Crawford's "things might go by contraries" (Taquisara, 1895) uses the phrase for events that turn out the reverse of what was expected.
contraries is a form of contrary
contrary, noun: The thing that is the opposite of what has been stated or assumed. Full entry
- Forms
- contrarycontraries plural
- Spelling
- contrary → contraries: change y to i, add -es
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with contraries, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.