Expanding and Contracting

1. A 'cause and effect' situation would be one thing that would tie these two words together. That is considering if one is using the definition of contracting in terms of talking about an illness/disease. The contracting effect would be from the expanding of the illness/disease.

2. Another way that these two words relate is simply that they're opposite of each other. Expanding is growing larger, or spreading out, or increasing in a number of ways. Contracting is saying that something is getting smaller, shrinking, or reducing.

3 One other way is that a person usually thinks that one will happen after the other. Like in how something breathes. There's an expansion to draw in a breath, and then contraction as the lungs, or whichever, lets air back out.