Word.ws English Dictionary

antipodes

/ænˈtɪp.əˌdiz/

antipodes noun: the place on the diametrically opposite side of the earth from a given point. Also the plural of antipode.

Noun

antipodes (uncountable)

  1. The place on the diametrically opposite side of the earth from a given point.
    • We should hold day with the Antipodes,
      If you would walk in absence of the sun.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. The Southern Hemisphere.
    • […]a delighted shout from the children swung him toward the door again. His sister, Mrs. Gerard, stood there in carriage gown and sables, radiant with surprise. ¶ "Phil! You! Exactly like you, Philip, to come strolling in from the antipodes—dear fellow!" recovering from the fraternal embrace and...1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
  3. (UK, archaic) Australia and New Zealand.
  4. (broadly, figuratively) The opposite of something.
    • The sleepy yet shrewd judge was the antipodes to confidence, but to Don Manuel he felt no hesitation in frankly stating his actions and their motives, from his first arrival in Spain to the present time.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 295
    • The loud, rapid, eager tones, the incessant motion, the intense vital activity manifested in speech and action, are the very antipodes of the quiet, unimpulsive, unanimated Malay.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 176

Proper noun capitalized: Antipodes

the Antipodes

  1. The Southern Hemisphere.
  2. (UK, dated) Australia and New Zealand.

Also used as

antipodes is also the plural of antipode.

Origin of antipodes

From Latin, from Ancient Greek ἀντίποδες (antípodes), from ἀντί (antí, “opposite”) + πόδες (pódes), plural of πούς (poús, “foot”).

See antipodes.

Words formed from antipodes

Questions about antipodes

What does antipodes mean?
Antipodes means the place on the diametrically opposite side of the earth from a given point.
What part of speech is antipodes?
Antipodes can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce antipodes?
Antipodes is pronounced /ænˈtɪp.əˌdiz/.

Words near antipodes in the dictionary

  1. antipodally
  2. antipodals
  3. antipode
  4. antipodean
  5. antipodeans
  6. antipodes
  7. antipodian
  8. antipodians
  9. antipodic
  10. antipodicity
  11. antipodism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: antipodes (page history and authors); Antipodes (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “antipodes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/antipodes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.