as in contrast
something or someone that is different from another especially in a pleasing way
The warm color palette of the furniture is the perfect counterpoint to the cool walls. The acidity of the sauce works in counterpoint to the richness of the dish.
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of counterpoint
The work of art is not a miraculously healing, autonomous object that finds its counterpoint in an awed and newly invigorated individual viewer.
—
Michaëla De Lacaze Mohrmann, Artforum, 1 Jan. 2025
The next step is to build a multi-layered network model that incorporates elements like rhythm, timbre, chords, or counterpoint (a Bach specialty).
—Ars Technica, 30 Dec. 2024
And yet the drawings, focused on arrangements of everyday objects, offer a quiet counterpoint to the sorrow that pervades the stories.
—Curbed Editors, Curbed, 29 Nov. 2024
The fourth album by these Philadelphia punks is a pristine work in the Sleater-Kinney tradition of petulance: Noise and vulnerability surge in exquisite counterpoint; guitars crunch as satisfyingly as an autumn leaf under one’s heel.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 17 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for counterpoint 
Michaëla De Lacaze Mohrmann, Artforum, 1 Jan. 2025
The next step is to build a multi-layered network model that incorporates elements like rhythm, timbre, chords, or counterpoint (a Bach specialty).
—Ars Technica, 30 Dec. 2024
And yet the drawings, focused on arrangements of everyday objects, offer a quiet counterpoint to the sorrow that pervades the stories.
—Curbed Editors, Curbed, 29 Nov. 2024
The fourth album by these Philadelphia punks is a pristine work in the Sleater-Kinney tradition of petulance: Noise and vulnerability surge in exquisite counterpoint; guitars crunch as satisfyingly as an autumn leaf under one’s heel.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 17 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for counterpoint
Thesaurus Entries Near counterpoint
Cite this Entry
“Counterpoint.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/counterpoint. Accessed 7 Feb. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share