different between contrast vs polarity

English

Etymology

From French contraster, from Italian contrastare (“to resist", "to withstand”), from Vulgar Latin *contr?st?re, from Latin contr? (“against”) + st?, st?re (“to stand”)

Pronunciation

• (noun)

  (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?nt???st/

  (US) enPR: k?n'tr?st, IPA^(key): /?k?nt(?)?æst/

• (verb)

  (UK) IPA^(key): /k?n?t???st/

  (US) enPR: k?ntr?st', k?n'tr?st, IPA^(key): /k?n?t(?)?æst/, /?k?nt(?)?æst/

• Rhymes: -??st

Noun

contrast (countable and uncountable, plural contrasts)

1. (countable) A difference in lightness, brightness and/or hue between two colours that makes them more or less distinguishable.
   1. (uncountable) The degree of this difference.

   2. (countable) A control on a television, etc, that adjusts the amount of contrast in the images being displayed.
2. (countable) A difference between two objects, people or concepts.

   • 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.
3. (countable, uncountable, rhetoric) Antithesis.

Derived terms

• metacontrast
• paracontrast

Translations

Verb

contrast (third-person singular simple present contrasts, present participle contrasting, simple past and past participle contrasted)

1. (transitive) To set in opposition in order to show the difference or differences between.
2. (intransitive) To form a contrast.
   • 1845, Charles Lyell, Lyell's Travels in North America

     The joints which divide the sandstone contrast finely with the divisional planes which separate the basalt into pillars.

Derived terms

• contrasting
• contrastive

Translations

See also

• compare

Catalan

Etymology

From contrastar, attested from the 14th century.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /kon?t?ast/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /kun?t?ast/

Noun

contrast m (plural contrasts or contrastos)

1. contrast

References

Further reading

• “contrast” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “contrast” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “contrast” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French contraste, from Middle French contraste, from Italian contrasto.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?n?tr?st/
• Hyphenation: con?trast
• Rhymes: -?st

Noun

contrast n (plural contrasten, diminutive contrastje n)

1. A contrast.

   Synonym: tegenstelling

Related terms

• contrasteren

Romanian

Etymology

From French contraste.

Noun

contrast n (plural contraste)

1. contrast

Declension

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??lær?ti/
• Rhymes: -æ??ti

Noun

polarity (countable and uncountable, plural polarities)

1. The separation, alignment or orientation of something into two opposed poles.
2. Either of the two extremes of such attributes.
3. (chemistry) The dipole-dipole intermolecular forces between the slightly positively-charged end of one molecule to the negative end of another or the same molecule. ^Wp
4. (embryology) The division of an embryo into an animal pole and a vegetal pole within a blastula. ^Wp
5. (microbiology) Spatial differences in shape, structure, and function within a cell. ^Wp
6. (electricity) A measure of the electrical potential at the ends of a circuit. ^Wp
7. (physics) The direction of a wave's amplitude or its being in phase or antiphase.
8. (grammar) The grammatical category of the affirmative and the negative. ^Wp
9. (projective geometry) A duality that is an involution, i.e. has order two. ^Wp
10. (mathematics) An indicator of the positivity or negativity of a literal. ^Wp
11. (politics) Any of the various ways in which power is distributed within the international system. ^Wp
12. (gender) The concept of dualism between masculine and feminine. ^Wp
13. (physics) Ellipsis of magnetic polarity
14. (geometry) Ellipsis of trilinear polarity

Derived terms

• magnetic polarity
• trilinear polarity
• polarity epoch

Translations