1. (

• contrastive ,
• incompatible

) of words so related that one contrasts with the other; "`rich' and `hard-up' are contrastive terms" ;

2. (

• contrasting ,
• contrastive

) strikingly different; tending to contrast; "contrasting (or contrastive) colors" ;

3. (

• contrastive

) syntactically establishing a relation of contrast between sentences or elements of a sentence; "disjunctive conjunctions like `but', `or', or `though' serve a contrastive function" ;