opposite

• opposit (archaic)

From Old French oposite, from Latin oppositus, perfect passive participle of oppōnō (“I oppose”). Compare oppose.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɒpəzɪt/, /ˈɒpəsɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɑp(ə)sɪt/, /ˈɑpəzɪt/

• Audio (US)

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opposite (not comparable)

1. Located directly across from something else, or from each other.

   She saw him walking on the opposite side of the road.

2. (botany) Of leaves and flowers, positioned directly across from each other on a stem.
3. Facing in the other direction.

   They were moving in opposite directions.

4. Of either of two complementary or mutually exclusive things.

   He has a lot of success with the opposite sex.

5. Extremely different; inconsistent; contrary; repugnant; antagonistic.
   • Dryden

     Novels, by which the reader is misled into another sort of pieasure opposite to that which is designed in an epic poem.

   • John Locke

     Particles of speech have divers, and sometimes almost opposite, significations.

• opposite sex

opposite (plural opposites)

1. Something opposite or contrary to something else.
2. An opponent.
3. An antonym.

   "Up" is the opposite of "down".

4. (mathematics) An additive inverse.

• opposites attract
• polar opposite

opposite (not comparable)

1. In an opposite position.

   I was on my seat and she stood opposite.

opposite

1. Facing, or across from.

   He lives opposite the pub.

   • 1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., OCLC 580270828, page 01:

     It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. […]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.

2. In a complementary role to.

   He played opposite Marilyn Monroe.

3. (television) On another channel at the same time.

   The game show Just Men! aired opposite The Young and the Restless on CBS.

• apposite

opposite

1. vocative masculine singular of oppositus

• opposite in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, pre-publication website, 2005-2016

opposite m or f (plural opposites)

1. opposite (located directly across from something else, or from each other)

opposite f (plural opposites)

1. opposite side

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (opposeur)