The AI-powered English dictionary
countable and uncountable, plural contrasts
(countable) A difference in lightness, brightness and/or hue between two colours that makes them more or less distinguishable.
(uncountable) The degree of this difference. examples
(countable) A control on a television, etc, that adjusts the amount of contrast in the images being displayed. quotations examples
Ohh, you can't fool me. This thing's top of the line! It's got two contrast knobs!
2009 May 4, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Hremail #7”, in Homestar Runner, spoken by Strong Bad (Matthew Chapman)
(countable) A difference between two objects, people or concepts. quotations examples
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.
1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company
... there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast.
1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 11
(countable) Something that is opposite of or strikingly different from something else. quotations examples
Why this denunciation of idolatry at this point? And why are Shabbat and the sanctuary mentioned as contrasts to idol worship?
2001, David L. Lieber, Jules Harlow, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, page 746
(countable, uncountable, rhetoric) Antithesis. examples
third-person singular simple present contrasts, present participle contrasting, simple past and past participle contrasted
(transitive) To set in opposition in order to show the difference or differences between. examples
(intransitive) To form a contrast. quotations examples
The joints which divide the sandstone contrast finely with the divisional planes which separate the basalt into pillars.
1845, Charles Lyell, Lyell's Travels in North America