countertype

[ koun-ter-tahyp ]

noun

1. a corresponding type.
2. an opposite type.

countertype

/ ˈkaʊntəˌtaɪp /

noun

1. an opposite type
2. a corresponding type

Word History and Origins

Origin of countertype¹

First recorded in 1615–25; counter- + type

Example Sentences

If Mr. Big, Carrie’s beloved, represented one ’90s male icon, the finance type, Robert, with his debt and pickup truck, represents a very current countertype, a disempowered white guy baffled to find things are no longer going his way.

From New York Times

I will call this countertype “the believer,” after Eggers’s influential magazine of the same name, though Wallace is arguably the architect of this post-ironic ethos.

From Salon

Their primary oppositional strategy is to imagine a characterological countertype to the incredulous ironist.

From Salon

THE great dimensions of this house, and its massive strength and solidity are no bad emblems of the old sturdiness, wealth, and pride of the Aragonese nobility, whose Plateresque architecture "differed" as Mr. O'Shea justly remarks, "in many points from its countertype the Seville Moro-Italian, or strictly Andalusian style, applied to private dwellings."

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• analogy
• comparison
• corollary
• resemblance
• similarity