juxtaposition

Etymology

From French juxtaposition, from Latin iuxtā (“near”) (from Latin iungō (“to join”)) + French position (“position”) (from Latin pōnō (“to place”)).

noun

1. The nearness of objects with little or no delimiter.
   1. (grammar) An absence of linking elements in a group of words that are listed together.
      Example: mother father instead of mother and father
   2. (mathematics) An absence of operators in an expression.
      Using juxtaposition for multiplication saves space when writing longer expressions. a×b collapses to ab.
      A fundamental operation on strings is string concatenation which we will denote by juxtaposition. 2007, Lawrence Moss, Hans-Jörg Tiede, “Applications of Modal Logic in Linguistics”, in P. Blackburn et al., editors, Handbook of Modal Logic, Elsevier, page 1054
2. The extra emphasis given to a comparison when the contrasted objects are close together.
   1. (art) Two or more contrasting sounds, colours, styles etc. placed together for stylistic effect.
      The juxtaposition of the bright yellows on the dark background made the painting appear three dimensional.
   2. (rhetoric) The close placement of two ideas to imply a link that may not exist.
      Example: In 1965 the government was elected; in 1965 the economy took a dive.

verb

1. To place in juxtaposition.