contradictory

«contradictory» in Mova's school dictionary: Contradictory statements or ideas cannot both be true… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

adjective (contradictory, more contradictory, most contradictory)

meaning for a pupil

1) Contradictory statements or ideas cannot both be true because they say opposite things. tree →

2) A contradictory person often says the opposite of what others say, or of what they themselves said before. tree →

sense in the lessons

In detective stories, contradictory stories from witnesses show someone is lying or mistaken. In science, contradictory results mean an experiment must be checked again. In logic and maths puzzles, two contradictory clues cannot both hold, so one must be false. Phrases: «contradictory evidence», «contradictory messages», «contradictory advice».

examples

• The two witnesses gave contradictory accounts of the crash. tree →
• «It is raining» and «it is not raining» are contradictory statements. tree →
• Mum and Dad gave me contradictory instructions about bedtime. tree →
• The experiment gave contradictory results, so we repeated it. tree →
• The rules on the sign were contradictory: «Keep left» and «Keep right». tree →
• His contradictory answers made the detective suspicious. tree →
• The puzzle has two contradictory clues, so one of the twins must be lying. tree →
• Of a contradictory woman the Russian peasants affirm that, "If you say 'shaved' she'll say 'cut.'" tree →

note

Verb: contradict (to say the opposite); noun: contradiction. Contradictory does not just mean «different»: two different opinions can both be partly right, but contradictory statements cannot both be true at the same time.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «contradictory» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.