ristiriitaista

Ristiriitaista is a Finnish form used to describe something that expresses contradiction or inconsistency. It is the partitive singular form of the adjective ristiriitainen, derived from the noun ristiriita meaning contradiction or inconsistency. The word is commonly used to characterize statements, information, positions, or arguments that cannot be true at the same time or that conflict with other evidence or theories.

In everyday and formal Finnish, ristiriitaista appears in phrases such as ristiriitaista tietoa (contradictory information), ristiriitaista väitettä (contradictory claim), or ristiriitaista tilannetta (contradictory situation). It signals a lack of coherence within a single source, across different sources, or between observations and explanations.

Usage notes: as an adjective form, ristiriitaista agrees with the noun it modifies and is most often seen in contexts where partitive case is required. The base adjective is ristiriitainen; related nouns include ristiriitaisuus (the quality of being contradictory). In logic and philosophy, the concept aligns with ideas of inconsistency or mutually exclusive propositions, though the term also occurs in journalism and academic writing to describe conflicting data or interpretations.

Related terms and contrasts include ristiriita (contradiction), epäjohdonmukaisuus (incoherence), and johdonmukaisuus (coherence). Ristiriitaista thus functions as a versatile descriptor for discordant or opposing elements within a discourse or body of evidence.