"contravariance" meaning in English

See contravariance in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-contravariance.wav Forms: contravariances [plural]
Etymology: From contra- + variance. Etymology templates: {{af|en|contra-|variance}} contra- + variance Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} contravariance (countable and uncountable, plural contravariances)
  1. (object-oriented programming) The reversal of the order of data types acted upon by an operator. Tags: countable, uncountable Coordinate_terms: covariance Translations (reversal of the order of data types acted upon by an operator): 逆變 /逆变 (nìbiàn) (Chinese Mandarin), kontravarianssi (Finnish), contravariance [feminine] (French), Kontravarianz [feminine] (German), контраварианттық (kontravarianttyq) (Kazakh), contravariância [feminine] (Portuguese), contravarianță [feminine] (Romanian), контравариантность (kontravariantnostʹ) [feminine] (Russian)
    Sense id: en-contravariance-en-noun-~PfKd9Z5 Categories (other): Object-oriented programming, English entries with incorrect language header, English terms prefixed with contra-, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 2 entries, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Kazakh translations, Terms with Mandarin translations, Terms with Portuguese translations, Terms with Romanian translations, Terms with Russian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 56 24 20 Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with contra-: 40 22 38 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 50 15 35 Disambiguation of Pages with 2 entries: 64 17 19 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 68 14 18 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 52 14 33 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 49 17 34 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 52 14 33 Disambiguation of Terms with Kazakh translations: 54 15 31 Disambiguation of Terms with Mandarin translations: 43 27 29 Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 54 15 31 Disambiguation of Terms with Romanian translations: 55 15 29 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 56 15 29 Disambiguation of 'reversal of the order of data types acted upon by an operator': 94 3 3
  2. (category theory) A functor which reverses composition. Tags: countable, uncountable Translations (functor which reverses composition): kontravarianssi (Finnish), Kofunktor [masculine] (German)
    Sense id: en-contravariance-en-noun-RMFHPLmZ Categories (other): Category theory, English terms prefixed with contra-, Mathematics Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with contra-: 40 22 38 Disambiguation of Mathematics: 2 50 48 Topics: category-theory, computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences Disambiguation of 'functor which reverses composition': 3 94 3
  3. (linear algebra) Of vectors, the property of scaling inversely with a change of basis, as opposed to covariance. Tags: countable, uncountable
    Sense id: en-contravariance-en-noun-dzabBBnP Categories (other): Linear algebra, English terms prefixed with contra-, Algebra, Mathematics Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with contra-: 40 22 38 Disambiguation of Algebra: 0 36 64 Disambiguation of Mathematics: 2 50 48 Topics: linear-algebra, mathematics, sciences
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: contravariant

Inflected forms

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Download raw JSONL data for contravariance meaning in English (4.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-07-20 using wiktextract (ed078bd and 3c020d2). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.