What does "contradistinction" mean?

Distinction by contrast; the provision of one example against which another example may be defined.

What is a synonym for "contradistinction"?

Common synonyms include: antagonism, antipathy, antithesis, clashing, collision, con.

Pronounced //ˌkɒntɹədɪˈstɪŋkʃn̩//.

//ˌkɒntɹədɪˈstɪŋkʃn̩// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Distinction by contrast; the provision of one example against which another example may be defined.
"We used hamburgers and soda in contradistinction to healthy food."
2
a distinction drawn on the basis of contrast wordnet
3
The quality of being contradistinctive.

"We used hamburgers and soda in contradistinction to healthy food."

From contra- + distinction.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.