diametrically

UK/ˌdaɪ.əˈmɛt.ɹɪk.li/

adverbC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans writtenformal · an editor’s judgement

Diametrically means completely and exactly opposite. Not merely different — facing the other way entirely.

In practice the word lives inside a single phrase: diametrically opposed. Two positions are diametrically opposed when no overlap is left between them at all, and that is very nearly the only place you will meet the word. The image behind it is geometric, since a diameter runs straight through a circle and the two ends of it are as far apart as the circle allows. Using it of anything less than total opposition sounds overblown, so save it for the real thing.

Definitions of diametrically

1adverbdiametricallyIn a way that is completely opposite.C1
“Their views are diametrically opposed.”

Phrases it lives in

diametrically opposed — completely opposite, with no common ground at all

Where it comes from

From diametrical + -ly.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 28 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

diametrically in the wild

Ctenophores exhibit biradial or rotational symmetry, defined by tentacular and pharyngeal axes, on which two anal canals are located in two diametrically opposed quadrants.
Radiata
The p- stands for para-, indicating that the two methyl groups in p-xylene occupy the diametrically opposite substituent positions 1 and 4.
P-Xylene
Key aspects of NLM, including holism, evolutionary design or delivery, and self-organization are diametrically opposite to linear management thinking.
Nonlinear management
During the years spent in Rome as Montini's secretary, he was close friends and collaborators with Paul Marcinkus, whose character was diametrically opposed to his own.
Pasquale Macchi
The lunar north pole is the northernmost point on the Moon, lying diametrically opposite the lunar south pole.
Lunar north pole

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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