counterpoint

CEFRB2

/ˈkaʊntə(ɹ)ˌpɔɪnt/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

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In plain English

Examples

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Deep Dive

Extra meanings

Any similar contrasting element in a work of art.
A melody added to an existing one, especially one added to provide harmony whilst each retains its simultaneous identity; a composition consisting of such contrapuntal melodies.

Extra meaning

In context

[…] Priests; who affecting in them selves and their followers a certein Angelical puritie, fell sodainly to the very counterpoint of justifying bestialitie.
As counterpoints to the glamorous looks of 1980s models such as Chistie Brinkley and Heidi Klum, heroin chic looks such as Kate Moss were thin to the point of anorectic gauntness.
I noticed […] that when a very cheesy synthesized violin sound plays in counterpoint with a real violin, it can quite convincingly seem as if two violins are playing.

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The word in print, with each source given in full.

I noticed […] that when a very cheesy synthesized violin sound plays in counterpoint with a real violin, it can quite convincingly seem as if two violins are playing.
2009, Roger T. Dean, The Oxford Handbook of Computer Music
As counterpoints to the glamorous looks of 1980s models such as Chistie Brinkley and Heidi Klum, heroin chic looks such as Kate Moss were thin to the point of anorectic gauntness.
2014, Nancy M. Marion, Willard M. Oliver, Drugs In American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics and the Law, page 188
[…] the dominant discourse on theory and method in the study of religions remains stuck on the debate about reductionism, which is in turn bent on representing the debate about theory and method in the study of religions as a choice between an unscientific phenomenology or an unsympathetic positivism (for phenomenology the idea that explanation is always 'bad' is perfectly counterpointed by the idea that religion is always 'good').
2011, Paul-François Tremlett, Religion and the Discourse on Modernity

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Inherited from Middle English [Term?], from Middle French contrepoint, from Medieval Latin contrāpūnctum. Equivalent to counter- + point.