contradictory

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   of words or propositions so related that both cannot be true and both cannot be false

   `perfect' and `imperfect' are contradictory terms

2. 2
   adj

   That contradicts something, such as an argument.

   This wide variety of genuinely contradictory holy sutras generated a serious problem in later Chinese and Japanese Buddhism. In the early period the Chinese and Japanese did not know that there were so many schools of Buddhism which disagreed with one another. Chinese and Japanese Buddhists assumed that every single Buddhist sutra was the actual words of the Buddha himself. As a result, Chinese Buddhists had to come up with some kind of explanation for the contradictory claims and assertions apparently made by the same holy person. The Chinese T’ien-t’ai school decided that the texts were spoken by the Buddha but tailored to different audiences of vastly different capabilities and insight.

3. 3
   adj

   That is itself a contradiction.

   Our attitudes toward sharks are contradictory. We fear them and yet we seek them out.

4. 4
   adj

   That is diametrically opposed to something.

   Schemes […] contradictory to common sense.

5. 5
   adj

   Mutually exclusive.

   [White House deputy chief of policy Stephen] Miller has offered contradictory versions of Trump administration statements and court rulings.

6. 6
   noun

   Either of a pair of propositions, that cannot both be true or both be false.

   If one proposition is the negation of another, it follows trivially from the definition that the two propositions are contradictories. The converse does not hold. Two propositions can be contradictories without either being the negation of the other. For example: 3) John is more than six feet tall and 4) John is either exactly six feet tall or else less than six feet tall are contradictories, but neither is the negation of the other. Negation is one way, but not the only way, of forming a contradictory.

7. 7
   adj

   unable to be both true at the same time

8. 8
   adj

   in disagreement

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin contradictorius, from Latin contradico. Equivalent to contradict + -ory.