contra
UK /ˈkɒntɹə/ · US /ˈkɑntɹə/ preposition, adverb, noun, verb
Forms contras
- preposition Against; contrary or opposed to; in opposition or contrast to.
- adverb Contrary to something.
- noun (business) A deal to swap goods or services.
- noun (politics, derogatory) A conservative; originally tied to Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries.
- noun (accounting, often attributive) An entry (or account) that cancels another entry (or account). “a contra position; a contra entry”
- noun (music, informal) Any of the musical instruments in the contrabass range, e.g. contrabassoon, contrabass clarinet or, especially, double bass.
- noun (dance) A contra dance.
- noun (obsolete, US, New England, dance) A country dance.
- verb (accounting) To undo; to reverse. “to contra a position (an entry)”
- noun 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.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
Ultimately from Latin contrā.
Short for Spanish contrarrevolucionarios (“counter-revolutionaries”).
Webster’s 1913
- A Latin adverb and preposition, signifying against, contrary, in opposition, etc., entering as a prefix into the composition of many English words. Cf. Counter, adv. & pref.
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “contra”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details