contra
UK/ˈkɒntɹə//ˈkɑntɹə/
contra preposition: against; contrary or opposed to; in opposition or contrast to.
Preposition
contra
- Against; contrary or opposed to; in opposition or contrast to.
Adverb
contra (comparative more contra, superlative most contra)
- Contrary to something.
- […] it is useless to pray “Thy kingdom come” and vote contra or stay away from the polls; […]1893 November 30, “The W.C.T.U. Convention. Interesting Reports Considered in Relation to the Several Departments of the Work. Suggested Lines of Development—Programme for the Closing Day.”, in The...
Noun (1)
contra (plural contras)
- A deal to swap goods or services.
- A conservative; originally tied to Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries.
- An entry (or account) that cancels another entry (or account).
- a contra position; a contra entry
- The sum for each contra account is shown in the last column.
- Synonyms:
- counterentry
- Any of the musical instruments in the contrabass range, e.g. contrabassoon, contrabass clarinet or, especially, double bass.
- A contra dance.
- A country dance.
- Folk histories record that contras were gradually displaced by the introduction of the quadrille and the new couple dances.2001, Ellen Koskoff, editor, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: North America, Garland Publishing, page 232
Verb
contra (third-person singular simple present contras, no present participle, no simple past or past participle)
Noun (2) capitalized: Contra
Contra (plural Contras)
- A member of any of various rightist guerrilla groups violently opposing the socialist Sandinista government of Nicaragua and secretly funded by the United States government in the 1980s.
contra meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi and Nepali
contra in Tamil
- எதிர்
contra in Malayalam
- കോൺട്രാ
contra in Punjabi
- ਕੰਟਰਾ
contra in Nepali
- कन्ट्रा
More languagesFewer languages
- contra in Tagalog
- kontra
- contra in Arabic
- عَلَى اَلْعَكْس ʕalā l-ʕaks, عَلَى اَلنَّقِيض مِن ʕalā n-naqīḍ min, ضِد ḍid
Examples of contra in a sentence
- Contra Micawber, income has not always placed an absolute, binding limit on consumption.
- Contra Piaget, I argue that:(1) development rarely involves stagelike domain-general change.
- My friend Ruth loves to contra dance and she met her fiancé Paul that way (two birds, one stone).
Synonyms of contra
Antonyms
Forms of contra
| Adverb | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more contra |
| superlative | most contra |
| Noun | |
| plural | contras |
| plural | Contras |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | contras |
Origin of contra
Ultimately from Latin contrā.
Short for Spanish contrarrevolucionarios (“counter-revolutionaries”).
Words formed from contra
Phrases with contra
Questions about contra
- What does contra mean?
- Contra means against; contrary or opposed to; in opposition or contrast to.
- What is contra in Tamil?
- Contra in Tamil is எதிர். See Contra meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is contra?
- Contra can be a preposition, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce contra?
- Contra is pronounced /ˈkɒntɹə/ (UK).
Words near contra in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: contra (page history and authors); Contra (page history and authors); contra (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); contra (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); contra (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); contra (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-contra.wav.
Cite this entry: “contra.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/contra. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.