4 meanings
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1 —as in:
contrast their writing styles
Definition
point to differences between; or compare to show differences- Contrast winter in Panama with winter in Alaska.
contrast = point to differences between; or compare to show differences
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- Contrast typical underlying beliefs of pro-life and pro-choice supporters.
- The author uses the characters to contrast the pressures felt by someone who spends everything earned and someone who saves money each month.
- At school, she once nearly got them in trouble, when her history teacher assigned the class to write a paper contrasting the views of Demosthenes and Locke as expressed in two of their early columns.Orson Scott Card -- Ender's Game
- In fact, by the age of twenty, the elite performers had each totaled ten thousand hours of practice. By contrast, the merely good students had totaled eight thousand hours, and the future music teachers had totaled just over four thousand hours.Malcolm Gladwell -- Outliers
- Kirsten was our resident drama queen. Her emotions were always at full throttle, as was her mouth; she never stopped talking, even if she was well aware you weren't listening to her. In contrast, Whitney was the silent type, which meant the few words she uttered always carried that much more meaning.Sarah Dessen -- Just Listen
- ...he had thought that up to make me understand he wasn't afraid of Radleys in any shape or form, to contrast his own fearless heroism with my cowardice.Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird
- His jeans were stiff with dirt, and they were too short besides. By contrast, his T-shirt hung almost to his knees.Khaled Hosseini -- And The Mountains Echoed
- Our business is not to contrast the two, but to reconcile them.E.M. Forster -- Howards End
- Jocelyn even had a graceful way of walking that made people turn their heads to watch her go by. Clary, by contrast, was always tripping over her feet.Cassandra Clare -- City of Bones
contrast = point to differences between
contrast = point to differences between; or compare to show differences
contrasting = pointing to differences between
by contrast = in a comparison that shows differences
in contrast = in a comparison that shows differences
contrast = point to the difference between
by contrast = in a comparison that shows differences
contrast = point to differences between
by contrast = in a comparison that shows differences
2 —as in:
there is a contrast
Definition
a difference — especially a notable difference; or the side-x-side arrangement of things that draws attention to an unmissable difference- The contrast in their leadership styles is striking. Olivia motivated people with fear. Isabella motivated them with praise.
contrast = notable difference
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- There was quite a contrast between the styles of the two teachers.
- I have laughed, in bitterness and agony of heart, at the contrast between what I seem and what I am!Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- In stark contrast to two nights ago, when I felt Peeta was a million miles away, I'm struck by his immediacy now.Suzanne Collins -- The Hunger Games
- He threw over her shoulders the wraps he had brought, the modest wraps of common life, the poverty of which contrasted with the elegance of the ball dress.Guy de Maupassant -- The Diamond Necklace
- Clary noted the contrast: the ravaged face of the older man and the boy's unlined one, the pale locks of hair falling into Jace's eyes making him look even younger.Cassandra Clare -- City of Bones
- The chill Westerberg sensed between Alex and his parents stood in marked contrast to the warmth McCandless exhibited in Carthage.Jon Krakauer -- Into the Wild
- To me at least there was a strange contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this sinister quest upon which we were engaged.Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
- She wears a bright yellow coat, buttoned to the throat, which contrasts with the dark gray overcast sky above.Khaled Hosseini -- And The Mountains Echoed
- I thought of all those heroines of fiction who looked pretty when they cried, and what a contrast I must make with blotched and swollen face, and red rims to my eyes.Daphne du Maurier -- Rebecca
contrast = notable difference
contrast = notable difference
contrast = difference
contrasted = was notably different
contrast = notable difference
contrast = difference
contrast = difference
contrasts = differs notably (in brightness or tone)
contrast = an unmissable difference when compared side-x-side
3 —as in:
it is a contrast
Definition
something noticeably different (compared to something else or to other things)- College is quite a contrast to high school.
contrast = something notably different
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- Her red dress was a striking contrast to all the black dresses around her.
- Leonard noticed the contrast when he stepped out of it into the country.E.M. Forster -- Howards End
- It was such a contrast to his restraint of a few minutes ago that Armstrong was quite taken aback.Agatha Christie -- And Then There Were None
- Her voice was soft, a contrast from the crazed, hard sound he'd heard from her after she first arrived, when she'd delivered the message that everything was going to change.James Dashner -- The Maze Runner
- It was like he knew how to treat a lady, he just didn't know how to treat a date. It was quite a contrast to Aspen.Kiera Cass -- The Selection
- He touched the photograph with a scarred and weathered hand—a strange contrast to the neat spotlessness of his tweed cuffs.Cassandra Clare -- City of Bones
- A wizard had just Apparated at their fireside, and he could not have made more of a contrast with Ludo Bagman, sprawled on the grass in his old Wasp robes.J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- "The Mooshka people loved your pictures," my mother was saying, her happy voice a complete contrast to how I felt as I sat in a long line of traffic, trying to get out of the parking lot after seventh period.Sarah Dessen -- Just Listen
- But he felt a tremendous respect for Ellsworth Toohey, because Toohey represented the exact opposite of his own life; Toohey had no concern whatever for worldly wealth; by the mere fact of this contrast, he considered Toohey the personification of virtue; what this estimate implied in regard to his own life never quite occurred to him.Ayn Rand -- The Fountainhead
contrast = something notably different
contrast = something noticeably different
contrast = something noticeably different
contrast = something noticeably different
contrast = something notably different
contrast = something noticeably different
contrast = something noticeably different
contrast = something notably different
contrast = something noticeably different
4 —as in:
sharpen the picture contrast
Definition
the difference between tones of an image — as in a photo or video — such as the quality of brightness or the intensity of shades or colors- She increased the video's contrast by making dark pixels darker and light pixels lighter.
contrast = the difference between tones of an image
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- Some technical definitions of contrast consider intensity of color. Other definitions consider only black and white.
- We increased the photo's contrast, so we can better see minor detail.
- ...a series of photos of a human vein, taken in sequence, in gradations of precisely controlled light, the level of contrast changing subtly with each one.Kim Edwards -- The Memory Keeper's Daughter
- ...for his early work filming cells, see G. O. Gey and W. M. Firor, "Phase Contrast Microscopy of Living Cells," Annals of Surgery 125 (1946).Rebecca Skloot -- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- He cropped out the sticker and adjusted the contrast and sharpness.Stieg Larsson -- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Blomkvist edited a series of pictures in which he cropped the top half of Harriet and processed them to achieve the best contrast.Stieg Larsson -- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- The late afternoon light came in through the curtains and made his face a study in contrasts.Cassandra Clare -- City of Bones
- As beams of light tinted the clouds with blazing colors, everything gained a sharp contrast: brightly lit on one side, deeply shadowed on the other.Christopher Paolini -- Eragon
- Mikael cropped the image to include the window alone, and then he experimented with adjusting the contrast and increasing the sharpness until he achieved what he thought was the best quality he could get.Stieg Larsson -- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
contrast = the difference between tones of an image
contrast = the difference between tones of an image
contrast = difference between tones of an image
contrast = the difference between tones of an image
contrast = difference between tones of an image
contrast = difference between tones of an image
contrasts = differences in shading
contrast = difference (in brightness or tones)
contrast = difference between tones of an image