polar opposite

English

WOTD – 14 December 2015

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

polar opposite (plural polar opposites)

1. The complete opposite, opposite in every way.
   • 1832 June, Allan Cunningham, "The Maid of Elvar," Blackwoods Magazine, p. 998 (Google preview):

     Rusticity and Urbanity are polar opposites—and there lie between many million modes of Manners.

   • 1960, Hellmut Wilhelm, Richard Wilhelm, Understanding the I Ching, →ISBN, p. 154 (Google preview):

     Buddhism, which regards all existence as no more than illusion, and the philosophy of existence, which regards existence as real behind the illusion of becoming, are, so to speak, polar opposites.

   • 2003 Sept. 25, Janet Maslin, "Books of the Times: A Family's Fatuousness," New York Times (retrieved 13 Dec 2015):

     [S]he is the prim, androgynous-sounding twin. . . . Her polar opposite, Abigail is the plump, lusty twin.