Meanings
present singular third person contradistinguishes · participle present contradistinguishing · participle past contradistinguished · past contradistinguished
- transitiveTo distinguish things by contrasting their different qualities.
A genuinely educative experience, then, one in which instruction is conveyed and ability increased, is contradistinguished from a routine activity on one hand, and a capricious activity on the other.
1916, John Dewey, Democracy and Education1 more example
Reason, therefore, here, as contradistinguished to faith, I take to be the discovery of the certainty or probability of such propositions or truths which the mind arrives at by deduction made from such ideas, which it has got by the use of its natural faculties ; viz. by sensation or reflection.
1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱe?
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱóm
- Proto-Italic*kom
- Proto-Italic*kom-
- Proto-Italic*komteros
- Proto-Italic*komterād
- Latincontrā
- Englishcontra-
- Englishdistinguish
- Englishcontradistinguish
From contra- + distinguish.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Greek αντιδιαστέλλω
- αντιδιαστέλλω (antidiastéllo)contrast and differentiate
Cite this entry
contradistinguish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contradistinguish
“contradistinguish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contradistinguish. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “contradistinguish,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contradistinguish.
Source: contradistinguish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.