cross-purposes
cross-purposes is the plural of cross-purpose.
Meaning of cross-purpose
Noun
cross-purpose (plural cross-purposes)
- A contrary or conflicting purpose or understanding, especially an unintentional or misconceived one.
- We are working at cross-purposes here, if you're trying to reduce the count and I'm trying to increase it.
Noun
cross-purposes (uncountable)
- A conversational game, in which questions and answers are made so as to involve ludicrous combinations of ideas.
- I danced; and so till 12 at night, and to supper, and then to cross-purposes, mighty merry; and then to bed - my eyes being sore.1667 January 4 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “December 26th, 1666”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume (please...
Words formed from cross-purposes
Questions about cross-purposes
- What does cross-purposes mean?
- Cross-purposes means a conversational game, in which questions and answers are made so as to involve ludicrous combinations of ideas.
- What is cross-purposes the plural of?
- Cross-purposes is the plural of cross-purpose.
- What part of speech is cross-purposes?
- Cross-purposes is a noun.
Words near cross-purposes in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cross-purposes (page history and authors); cross-purpose (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: “cross-purposes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cross-purposes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.