Con`tra*dic"tion (?), n. [L. contradictio answer, objection: cf. F. contradiction.] 1. An assertion of the contrary to what has been said or affirmed; denial of the truth of a statement or assertion; contrary declaration; gainsaying.
His fair demands
Shall be accomplished without contradiction.
Shak.
2. Direct opposition or repugnancy; inconsistency; incongruity or contrariety; one who, or that which, is inconsistent.
can be make deathless death? That were to make
Strange contradiction.
Milton.
We state our experience and then we come to a manly resolution of acting in contradiction to it.
Burke.
Both parts of a contradiction can not possibly be true.
Hobbes.
Of contradictions infinite the slave.
Wordsworth.
Principle of contradiction Logic, the axiom or law of thought that a thing cannot be and not be at the same time, or a thing must either be or not be, or the same attribute can not at the same time be affirmed and and denied of the same subject. It develops itself in three specific forms which have been called the "Three Logical Axioms." First. "A is A." Second, "A is not Not-A" Third, "Everything is either A or Not-A."
© Webster 1913. | 
