Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

contradiction

 noun
     
con‧tra‧dic‧tion
1 [countable] a difference between two statements, beliefs, or ideas about something that means they cannot both be true:
apparent contradictions in the defendant's testimony
contradiction between
a contradiction between the government's ideas and its actual policy
2 [uncountable] the act of saying that someone else's opinion, statement etc is wrong or not true:
You can say what you like without fear of contradiction.
3

a contradiction in terms

a combination of words that seem to be the opposite of each other, with the result that the phrase has no clear meaning:
'Permanent revolution' is a contradiction in terms.
4

in (direct) contradiction to something

in a way that is opposite to a belief or statement:
Your behaviour is in direct contradiction to the principles you claim to have.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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