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Allin

opposite

adjectivenounadverbprepositioncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈɒp.ə.zɪt//
  • United Kingdom//ˈɒp.ə.sɪt//
  • United States//ˈɑ.pə.sɪt//
  • United States//ˈɑp.sɪt//
  • United States//ˈɑ.pə.zɪt//

Located directly across from something else, or from each other.

adjective

  1. 1

    Located directly across from something else, or from each other.

    She saw him walking on the opposite side of the road.

  2. 2

    Of leaves and flowers, positioned directly across from each other on a stem.

  3. 3

    Facing in the other direction.

    They were moving in opposite directions.

  4. 4

    Of either of two complementary or mutually exclusive things.

    He is attracted to the opposite sex.

  5. 5

    Extremely different; inconsistent; contrary; antagonistic.

    Novels, by which the reader is misled into another sort of pieasure opposite to that which is designed in an epick poem.

    , Book III Particles of speech have divers, and sometimes almost opposite, significations.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English opposit, borrowed from Old French oposite, from Latin oppositus, perfect passive participle of oppōnō (“to oppose”). Compare oppose.

noun

  1. 1

    Something or someone opposite to something or someone else. A person or thing that is importantly (substantively) different from someone or something else.

  2. 2

    Something or someone opposite to something or someone else. A person or thing that is importantly (substantively) different from someone or something else. Especially, one that is different to the extreme degree of being the reverse.

    She is the opposite of her ex-boyfriend who abused her both physically and verbally nearly every day for five years. She now works as an advocate and supportive listener for others who have endured abusive relationships.

  3. 3

    Something or someone opposite to something or someone else. An opponent.

    The dogfighter fought closely with his opposite.

  4. 4

    Something or someone opposite to something or someone else. A counterpart.

    The Swedish diplomat worked closely with his opposite from Denmark.

  5. 5

    Something or someone opposite to something or someone else. An antonym.

    "Up" is the opposite of "down".

  6. 6

    Something or someone opposite to something or someone else. An additive inverse.

adverb

  1. 1

    In an opposite position.

    I was on my seat and she stood opposite.

    Where's the bus station? -Over there, just opposite.

  2. 2

    On another channel at the same time.

preposition

  1. 1

    Facing, or across from.

    There’s a bus stop opposite the faculty entrance, right on the other side of the road.

    It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street.[…]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.

  2. 2

    In a complementary role to.

    He played opposite Marilyn Monroe.

  3. 3

    On another channel at the same time.

    The game show Just Men! aired opposite The Young and the Restless on CBS.

Forms

plural
opposites
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).