contrast

Etymology

From French contraster, from Italian contrastare (“to resist", "to withstand”), from Vulgar Latin *contrāstāre, from Latin contrā (“against”) + stō, stāre (“to stand”).

noun

1. (medicine) is a substance used to increase the contrast of structures or fluids within the body in medical imaging.
2. (countable) A difference in lightness, brightness and/or hue between two colours that makes them more or less distinguishable.
   1. (uncountable) The degree of this difference.
      The red and the orange don't have much contrast between them — I can hardly tell them apart.
   2. (countable) A control on a television, etc, that adjusts the amount of contrast in the images being displayed.
      Ohh, you can't fool me. This thing's top of the line! It's got two contrast knobs! 4 May 2009, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Hremail #7”, in Homestar Runner, spoken by Strong Bad (Matthew Chapman)
3. (countable) A difference between two objects, people or concepts.
   Israel is a country of many contrasts.
   ... there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 11
4. (countable) Something that is opposite of or strikingly different from something else.
   Why this denunciation of idolatry at this point? And why are Shabbat and the sanctuary mentioned as contrasts to idol worship? 2001, David L. Lieber, Jules Harlow, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, page 746
5. (countable, uncountable, rhetoric) Antithesis.

verb

1. (transitive) To set in opposition in order to show the difference or differences between.
2. (intransitive) To form a contrast.
   Foreground and background strongly contrast.
   The joints which divide the sandstone contrast finely with the divisional planes which separate the basalt into pillars. 1845, Charles Lyell, Lyell's Travels in North America