Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1500-1600
Language: Latin
Origin: , past participle of contradicere, from contra- ( CONTRA-) + dicere 'to say'

contradict

 verb
     
con‧tra‧dict
1 [intransitive and transitive] to disagree with something, especially by saying that the opposite is true:
Deborah opened her mouth to contradict, but closed it again.
Dad just can't bear to be contradicted.
The article flatly contradicts their claims.
2 [transitive] if one statement, story etc contradicts another, the facts in it are different so that both statements cannot be true:
The witness statements contradict each other and the facts remain unclear.
3

contradict yourself

to say something that is the opposite of what you said before:
Within five minutes he had contradicted himself twice.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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