Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One who takes a contrary view or action, especially an investor who makes decisions that contradict prevailing wisdom, as in buying securities that are unpopular at the time.
Wiktionary
- n. a person who expresses a contradicting viewpoint, especially one who denounces the majority persuasion
- n. finance a financial investor who tends to have an opinion of market trends at variance with most others
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. taking an opposing view, especially a view opposite to that taken by the majority.
- n. a person who habitually takes a view opposite to that held by the majority.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an investor who deliberately decides to go against the prevailing wisdom of other investors
Etymologies
- c 1660 contrary + -an (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Highlighting this contrarian is to rub the nose of Republicans in the mire. key”
“The book is only 280 pages long, but so rich in contrarian assaults on cherished American assumptions I cannot adequately summarize it.”
The Washington Post: Why low standards for education are good
“Your adopted role as contrarian is becoming rather trite.”
“He was often described as a contrarian - a description he disowned; he was disputatious, but never, it seemed, for the sake of it.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“And, right on cue, the market is up over 30\% since we highlighted that short-term contrarian signal.”
“Last week's news has raised the possibility that the GSEs could wind up actually being a profitable long-term contrarian play.”
“Find a serious 'contrarian' - one that doesn't lace their statements with nonsense, and you'll find someone perhaps worth interviewing.”
“March 10th, 2010 at 7: 38 pm dbadass says: the fake doctor needs to remember to try to use the word contrarian with only one of his fake identities lest he give himself away yet again …”
“The idea of embracing out-of-favor stocks, sometimes called contrarian investing, isn't new.”
The Wall Street Journal: Contrarian Patience Pays Off -- Finally
“And so in theory, the university in Greenwich Village seemed like a perfect fit for a man who's at turns described as contrarian, free-thinking, and, yes, a maverick.”
The Wall Street Journal: Nebraska Liberal, New York Reactionary
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘contrarian’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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nschotten's list
A list of words.
fecundity, atavistic, steatopygous, demiurge, sufflaminandus, occiput, trenchant, hobnails, soft-pedal, parsimony, fatuous, ratiocination and 28 more...
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February 2012
filiopietistic, bifurcate, enclave, wedlock, decadent, unduly, defunct, lapel, tumescent, capitulation, leaden, scintilla and 83 more...
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apjoseph's words
insurmountable, ubiquitous, unequivocal, incumbent, asinine, amenable, sycophants, precarious, malevolent, gregarious, raison detra, nefarious and 200 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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quotato's Words
prospicience, appoggiatura, actually, thrum, nisus, univocal, eschatology, concupiscible, penury, psychedelic, vapid, braggadocio and 107 more...
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mager's Words
enigmatic, pragmatic, pulchritudinous, nincompoop, annihilation, sociality, entailment, acrosome, egalitarian, culture, technocracy, shenanigan and 541 more...
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lanklenmot's Words
ineluctable, prelapsarian, bien pensant, prospero, preternatural, gratifying, iconoclast, cineast, persnickety, tumescent, galvanize, pap and 887 more...
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Vocalublary Awareness
Words I need to use more to increase my vocabulary.
incredulous, prolific, ubiquitous, egregious, aplomb, resilience, persevere, punctilious, perspicacious, inordinate, articulate, enunciate and 199 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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nfrank's Words
antediluvian, equivocate, inchoate, denouement, effulgent, edify, endemic, palimpsest, apropos, circumnavigate, circumlocution, cognoscente and 484 more...
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noele's list
vertiginous, verdant, mellifluous, serpentine, verdigris, traject, amaranthine, luminous, phosphorescent, temerous, cerulean, shapeshifter and 531 more...
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April 2010
first list of words
miscegenation, anodyne, anomie, anthropomorphic, apotheosis, bijou, bumptious, causality, contrarian, dystopia, ephemera, exemplary and 9 more...
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N-W
panoply, pluperfect, diffident, parochial, alliteration, rabble-rouser, effrontery, slake, effete, cavil, mawkish, perfidious and 28 more...
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Sissyphus's Words
contrarian, sycophantic, cacaphonous, avuncular, drat, philology, apropos, mellifluous, vitriolic, funambulist, orts, whence
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Nick's Words
Words I often can't recall when I need to use them. Plus some interesting words I like.
paranoid, ineffable, syncopated, authenticity, euphemism, profundity, ambiguous, consequential, contingent, apropos, veg-eatables, autoantonym and 56 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for contrarian.

bilby Am not. May 20, 2009
mollusque Bilby is. May 20, 2009
nuxiy Haha :) May 19, 2009
mollusque Am not. May 19, 2009