countervailing
1
7.0
- adjective
- /ˌkaʊntərˈveɪlɪŋ/
- Formal
:
contrarrestante
- Troubled by specialization that led to the fragmentation and compartmentalization of biology, the founders of AIBS thought that the annual meeting would serve as a countervailing force that would bring biologists together under one umbrella for an interdisciplinary exchange of information.
- countervailing duty
- countervailing force
- countervailing case
What, what is the countervailing message to that that you would want to say?
- What, what is the countervailing message to that that you would want to say?
- But even places like that that were explicitly designed to act as a countervailing force to this unified Congress.
- So the the kind of removal of God from the equation, your suggestion is that God makes a person impervious to countervailing responses.
Examples
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All this, of course, by no means ensures that Tunisia's democratizing experiment will succeed, for there are any number of countervailing factors and likely obstacles ahead.
Academic text (2011) -
Tocqueville believed that in aristocratic times there were always countervailing centers of power.
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What, what is the countervailing message to that that you would want to say?
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First of all, the United States has many more countervailing cases than Canada does.
Academic text (1997) -
In other words, there are a bunch of countervailing factors that would need to be considered.
Blog text (18) -
There are always countervailing considerations that shape the form and direction of policy outcomes.
Academic text (1994) -
I think that the rise of online shopping is a tremendously strong countervailing force.
Blog text (18) -
Since 1992, the negotiating parties have tried to act as a countervailing force to the powerful trends pulling apart South African society.
Academic text (1993) -
In this economic and political context, the shape of the social dimension for EC 1992 is obvious, but there were countervailing political factors that constrained such EC-wide proposals.
Academic text (1990) -
In negotiations, the unions provided a countervailing force to balance the power of the management.
Synonyms
1
7.0
Acting against something to reduce its effect
Kept balanced by an equal force on the opposite side
Compounds
- Formal
1
8.6
A tax on imported goods to reduce unfair government help to foreign companies
How Balancing
Surface Forms
Morphology
countervailing = countervail (semi-transparent) = counter + vail + ing
The prefix 'counter-' (against) is clear, but the root 'vail' is rare/archaic or unfamiliar to many learners, so the full meaning requires knowing the verb 'countervail'.
Etymology
The word countervailing comes from counter- ('against') and the root vail from Latin valere ('to be strong'), as in prevail ('to be stronger'). So countervailing means a force that works 'against' another to balance or reduce its effect.