Inflected forms: pl. an·tith·e·ses (-sz) 1. Direct contrast; opposition. 2. The direct or exact opposite: Hope is the antithesis of despair.3a. A figure of speech in which sharply contrasting ideas are juxtaposed in a balanced or parallel phrase or grammatical structure, as in “Hee for God only, shee for God in him” (John Milton). b. The second and contrasting part of such a juxtaposition. 4. The second stage of the Hegelian dialectic process, representing the opposite of the thesis.
ETYMOLOGY:
Late Latin, from Greek, from antitithenai, antithe-, to oppose : anti-, anti- + tithenai, to set; see dh- in Appendix I.
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