au contraire

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French au contraire.

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /əʊ ˈkɒntɹɛː(ɹ)/
  • (US) IPA(key): /oʊ ˌkoʊnˈtɹɛ(ə)ɹ/

Adverb

au contraire (not comparable)

  1. (usually humorous, emphatic) on the contrary
    • 1997, Mike Myers, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery:
      Fembots: (one by one) You can't resist us, Mr. Powers. / Austin Powers: Au contraire, baby. I think that you can't resist me.
    You think I want to go to this thing? Au contraire, mon frère!

Usage notes

Used for more humorous, ironic, or dramatic effect than on the contrary.[1]

Translations
on the contrary — See also translations at on the contrary

References
  1. “A.Word.A.Day--au contraire”, in wordsmith.org‎, (please provide a date or year)

French

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /o kɔ̃.tʁɛːʁ/[1]
  • (Quebec) IPA(key): /o kõ.tʁaɛ̯ʁ/
  • Audio(file)
  • Audio (CAN)(file)

Adverb

au contraire

  1. on the contrary, quite the contrary, quite the opposite; au contraire

Usage notes

May be reinforced by bien or tout, i.e., bien au contraire or tout au contraire [1][2]

  • au contraire de

References
  1. “contraire”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
  2. “contraire” in Dictionnaire Français en ligne Larousse.
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