contrastive.

Used to bring out differences between things rather than their similarities.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• contrastive analysis
• contrastive stress

On the page

Contrastive analysis revealed where the two accounts diverged.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Normally non-gradable; no ordinary comparative or superlative. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.