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Apposite and opposite sound so much alike that you would expect them to have a common ancestor—and they do: the Latin verb pōnere, which means "to place, set.” The prefixes that we see in the pair, ap- and op-, specify the kind of placement. Apposite is from appōnere, meaning “to place near,” and opposite is from oppōnere, one meaning of which is "to place (over or against).” Opposite is of course the far more common word, but apposite is useful too and is, ahem, apposite in descriptions of what is very appropriate or suitable for something, as in “an apposite comment.”
Synonyms
Examples of apposite in a Sentence
Stephanie Hirschmiller, Forbes, 14 Feb. 2023
Fulham provides an apposite example.
—New York Times, 5 Aug. 2022
Diño concurred and said that budgets in the Philippines for independent films have also gone up to $1 million and going international allows filmmakers to realize their cinematic visions with apposite budgets.
—Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 6 Oct. 2022
In one sense, the Italian humanists’ argument, as Mr. Hankins explains it, is both apposite and unassailable.
—Barton Swaim, WSJ, 19 Aug. 2022
There does, though, seem to be one apposite fact missing from this puzzle: the fact that people grow up.
—New York Times, 29 July 2022
Burns points to an apposite scene in the last episode, of an unspecified protest march across New York’s Brooklyn Bridge.
—David Bloom, Forbes, 16 Sep. 2021
There is something apposite and almost ridiculously perfect about the fact that Margaret Howell’s 50th anniversary has come around in 2020.
—Sarah Mower, Vogue, 22 Sep. 2020
In that regard, Mr. Obama seems an apposite speaker at Mandela’s centenary.
—Peter Godwin, WSJ, 13 July 2018
Dictionary Entries Near apposite
Cite this Entry
“Apposite.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apposite. Accessed 17 Dec. 2024.
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apposite
adjective
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