Answer
Answer verb - To speak or write in reaction to a question or to another reaction.
Contradict and answer are semantically related. In some cases you can use "Contradict" instead a verb "Answer".
Contradict
Contradict verb - To make an assertion that is contrary to one made by (another).
Answer and contradict are semantically related. Sometimes you can use "Answer" instead a verb "Contradict".
Common collocations
Both words in one sentence
- Can overlap with this if they later do give a straight answer, or if they contradict an earlier straight answer by saying the detail in question is intentionally ambiguous.
Source: Flip-Flop of God -
Then, the kicker: later on Colonel Potter notices and announces that her answer couldn't possibly have been the murderer due to several in-story scenes that contradict that.
Source: Series / M*A*S*H - On the other hand, there is a very deliberate employment of this trope, where the writer presents a number of possible lessons or morals to be taken from the events of the story... only to conclude that since they all contradict each other, the answer is that there is no answer.
Source: Lost Aesop
Cite this Source
Contradict and Answer. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 07, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/answer/contradict
Answer & Contradict. N.p., 2016. Web. 07 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/answer/contradict>.
Contradict or Answer. 2016. Accessed August 07, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/answer/contradict.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "answer" and "contradict" have occurred on timeline