contrast

From French contraster, from Italian contrastare (“to resist", "to withstand”), from Vulgar Latin *contrāstāre, from Latin contrā (“against”) + stō, stāre (“to stand”).

• (noun)

  (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒntɹɑːst/

• (Northern England, Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒntɹast/

  (US) enPR: kŏn'trăst, IPA^(key): /ˈkɑnt(ʃ)ɹæst/

Audio (US):

(file)

• (verb)

  (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kənˈtɹɑːst/

  Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (Northern England, Scotland) IPA^(key): /kənˈtɹast/

  (US) enPR: kəntrăst', kŏn'trăst, IPA^(key): /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/, /ˈkɑnt(ʃ)ɹæst/

• Rhymes: -ɑːst

contrast (countable and uncountable, plural contrasts)

1. (countable) A difference in lightness, brightness and/or hue between two colours that makes them more or less distinguishable.
   1. (uncountable) The degree of this difference.

      The red and the orange don't have much contrast between them — I can hardly tell them apart.

   2. (countable) A control on a television, etc, that adjusts the amount of contrast in the images being displayed.
      • 2009 May 4, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Hremail #7”, in Homestar Runner‎^[1], spoken by Strong Bad (Matthew Chapman):

        Ohh, you can't fool me. This thing's top of the line! It's got two contrast knobs!

2. (countable) A difference between two objects, people or concepts.

   Israel is a country of many contrasts.

   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone [the sponsor] long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 11:

     ... there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast.

3. (countable) Something that is opposite of or strikingly different from something else.
   • 2001, David L. Lieber, Jules Harlow, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, page 746:

     Why this denunciation of idolatry at this point? And why are Shabbat and the sanctuary mentioned as contrasts to idol worship?

4. (countable, uncountable, rhetoric) Antithesis.

contrast (third-person singular simple present contrasts, present participle contrasting, simple past and past participle contrasted)

1. (transitive) To set in opposition in order to show the difference or differences between; to counterpoint.
2. (intransitive) To form a contrast.

   Foreground and background strongly contrast.

   • 1845, Charles Lyell, Lyell's Travels in North America:

     The joints which divide the sandstone contrast finely with the divisional planes which separate the basalt into pillars.

• (antonym(s) of “to show difference”): liken

• contrastable
• compare and contrast
• contrasting
• contrastive

• compare

Deverbal from contrastar. First attested in the 14th century.^[1]

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kunˈtɾast]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [konˈtɾast]

contrast m (plural contrasts or contrastos)

1. contrast

• “contrast” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “contrast” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “contrast” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Borrowed from French contraste, from Middle French contraste, from Italian contrasto.

• IPA^(key): /kɔnˈtrɑst/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: con‧trast
• Rhymes: -ɑst

contrast n (plural contrasten, diminutive contrastje n)

1. a contrast

   Synonym: tegenstelling

• contrasteren

Borrowed from French contraste.

contrast n (plural contraste)

1. contrast