contrast

Pluralcontrasts

Formscontrasts, contrasting, contrasted

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The way in which two things, people, or ideas differ from each other.

   The contrast between the city center and the quiet suburbs surprised her.

   Economists noted sharp contrasts between the two regions' growth rates.

   Similardifference, disparity, distinction, divergence, gap

   Oppositesimilarity, likeness, resemblance

   Note

   The general noun of difference, and the home of the phrase by contrast. Herman Melville builds a whole claim on it in Moby Dick (1851): there is no quality in this world "that is not what it is merely by contrast." Being countable, it pluralizes freely, as in a country of many contrasts, and two people can make a contrast, as the colonel and his stringy sponsor do in W. B. M. Ferguson's Zollenstein (1908).

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A person or thing that is strikingly different from or opposite to another.

   The painting's dark background is a striking contrast to the bright figures in front.

   His simple lifestyle stood as a contrast to his enormous wealth.

   Similarfoil, counterpoint, antithesis, opposite

   Note

   Here the word names the thing rather than the gap. It refers not to the contrast between two items but to the item that serves as one. It often takes to: Etz Hayim (2001) asks why Shabbat and the sanctuary are mentioned "as contrasts to idol worship." If "opposite" fits in its place, you have this sense. If "difference" fits, you have the general noun of difference.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To place two things side by side in order to show the differences between them.

   The essay contrasts modern farming methods with traditional ones.

   Reviewers often contrast the director's early films with her later work.

   Similarcompare, juxtapose, differentiate, distinguish

   Oppositeliken

   Note

   The verb keeps the picture in its Latin roots, contrā "against" and stāre "to stand": two things are made to stand against each other. Its Italian ancestor contrastare meant "to resist." By way of French, English turned resisting into comparing. It is transitive and usually pairs its objects with with, as in contrast modern methods with traditional ones. Counterpoint is a close partner in meaning.

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To form a contrast; to stand out as noticeably different from something else.

   The somber tone of the opening contrasts with the comedy that follows.

   Sharp shadows contrast against the pale stone walls.

   Similardiffer, clash, conflict, jar

   Oppositematch, harmonize, blend

   Note

   Now the things themselves do the work: no one sets them side by side, they simply stand apart. Often followed by with, it readily takes adverbs such as strongly, nicely and finely. Charles Lyell, in his Travels in North America (1845), describes sandstone joints that "contrast finely with" the planes splitting basalt into pillars. In the transitive verb, someone does the comparing.

5. 5
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A difference in lightness, brightness, or hue between two colors that makes them more or less easy to tell apart.

   Accessibility guidelines warn that light gray text on a white page produces a contrast too weak for many readers.

   The painter set orange flowers against a deep blue sky, and the contrasts between warm and cool hues give the canvas its energy.

   Similardifference

   Note

   This color sense is used both counted and uncounted, and the two uses mean slightly different things. Counted, it names a particular pairing: a painting can hold several contrasts, warm against cool, light against dark. Uncounted, it names how much difference there is overall. An image has high or low contrast, and that amount is what the television control adjusts. Hue alone can supply it, so two equally light colors may still form a contrast.

   The old photograph has very little contrast, so the faces fade into the background.

   Black type on yellow gives more contrast than gray type on white.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A control on a television or similar device that adjusts the amount of difference between light and dark in the displayed image.

   He adjusted the contrast until the picture looked right.

   Older sets had physical dials for brightness and contrast.

7. 7
   nounrhetoriccountable or uncountable

   Direct opposition; the placing of contrary ideas against one another, especially as a rhetorical device.

   The novel turns on the contrast between freedom and duty.

   Rhetorical contrast (light versus dark, life versus death) drives the elegy.

   Similaropposition, juxtaposition, antithesis

   Note

   A rhetorician's term and a plainer English name for antithesis. Opposing ideas are set side by side, often in balanced grammatical structures, so that each term sharpens the other. It works both ways grammatically. It can be countable, naming one pairing such as a contrast of light and dark, or uncountable, naming the device itself, as in a speech built on contrast.

8. 8
   noununcountable

   A substance introduced into the body to make particular tissues or vessels show up more clearly on a medical scan.

   The radiologist injected contrast to highlight the blood vessels.

   She had a mild reaction to the contrast used in her CT scan.

   Note

   Clinical shorthand: the word medium has dropped away, and contrast alone names the substance. It is uncountable, so a patient is given contrast, not a contrast. These substances are radiopaque or paramagnetic, changing how tissues absorb X-rays or respond to magnetic fields. As a result, the scan gains the light-and-dark difference of the visual sense.

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