It's the Word of the Day podcast for May 19th.

Today's word is antithetical, spelled A-N-T-I-T-I-T-E-T-E-T-E-T-E-L. Antithetical is an adjective.

It typically describes something that is indirect or unambiguous opposition to another thing. It's often used with the particle too.

Here's the word used in a sentence from the Oxford Mail by Toby Oliver.

This proposed village development is too large, too sudden, and too antithetical to the

character of our village. It threatens the unique and irreplaceable heritage and biosphere, and

with that the lifestyles of the existing community. The words antithetical and antithesis come from

the Greek verb antithinai, meaning to oppose.

The oldest sense of antithesis refers to a language pattern that contrasts parallel ideas,

as in action, not words, or they promised plenty and delivered scarcity.

And antithetical originally referred to anything that was marked by such antithesis.

For example, you could say that the phrase, action, not words, is an antithetical construction.

It's more common, however, for antithesis to mean the exact opposite, and for antithetical to mean directly opposite, as in an idea antithetical

to our stated goals. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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