opposite
The opposite of a thing or a property is colloquially mostly a thing or a property that represents a kind of reflection of the former in an imaginary center.
So colloquially the opposite of big would be small, because big and small are felt to be the same distance from the imaginary center of "normal big". The opposite of tiny, however, would be huge, since the perceived distance from tiny to normal large is perceived as greater than would be the case with the simple "small".
In linguistics , opposite is an opposite term or counterword that is called an antonym . There are different types of antonyms . Antonym = opposite. (The antonym of synonym is antonym.)
Mathematically speaking, the opposite of a set is the complementary set or the opposite of a statement is the negated statement.
In philosophy, since Aristotle, a distinction has been made between four types of opposites or logical opposites :
- the adversarial (e.g. know - don't know)
- the contrary (e.g. white - black)
- the privative (e.g. seeing - blind)
- the relative (e.g. double - half)
See also
Web links
Was-ist-das-Gegsteil-von.de - an antonyms / opposites search engine