noun
antithesis
an-TITH-uh-sis/ænˈtɪθəsɪs/
The direct opposite of something.
The bowl of ice is the antithesis of the bowl of fire beside it.
Etymology
The pieces mean a “placing against”: setting contrary ideas beside one another to sharpen their contrast. From this rhetorical opposition, antithesis came to mean the thing that is another’s direct opposite.
In context
question into its opposite or antithesis and in order to escape we have to find a new less incomplete idea which is the synthesis of our original idea in its antithesis
More examples
- The quiet room was the antithesis of the noisy street.
- She regarded censorship as the antithesis of open inquiry.
- The two characters serve as antitheses of one another.
Forms
antithesis · antitheses
antithetical adjective — directly opposed