Starting a sentence with "rather"?

Question

I've sometimes heard people use *rather* for connecting two sentences where the second one sets counterexample to something negated in the first.> This is not a meaningful sentence. Rather, it's an example.First, I would like to find out whether this is a proper usage of the word. Finally, if it is, I would like to find out how to properly write such sentences (the above example is likely grammatically incorrect). I am especially interested whether they can, or even should for that matter, be separated by a semicolon rather than by a period.

Answer 1

To quote the Cambridge English dictionary, which I consider a "go to" source for any questions I have while teaching English class, the above example is correct. One can say "No, I'm not tired. Rather the opposite in fact." Here we see two sentences with a period separating them, not a semicolon. The second sentence is just an added remark about the first sentence. The word "rather" is being used to emphasize the fact that the speaker really is not tire in the least.