Contronym

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Template:Short description Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Hatnote list' not found. A contronym is a word with two opposite meanings. For example, the word clip can mean "attach," as in paperclip, or "cut off," as in "clip the hedges." Since a contronym has at least two meanings, it is by definition polysemic.

Nomenclature

A contronym is alternatively called an autantonym, autoantonymy, auto-antonym, antagonym,[1][2] antilogy, contranym, enantiodrome (enantio- means "opposite"), enantionym, enantioseme,[3][4] Janus word (after the Roman god Janus, who is usually depicted with two faces),[2] or self-antonym.

Examples

English

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For a list of words relating to contronyms in English, see the English contranyms category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  • Cleave can mean "to cling" or "to split apart".[2][5]
  • Clip can mean "attach" or "cut off".[2]
  • Drop can mean "release or make available" (e.g. a music record) or "abandon or discontinue".[6]
  • Dust can mean "to remove dust" (e.g. to clean a house) or "to add dust" (e.g. to dust a cake with powdered sugar).[2][5] This contradiction features in the children's book Amelia Bedelia.[7]
  • Fast can mean "without moving; fixed in place", (holding fast, fastened, also as in "steadfast"), or "moving quickly".[2][5]
  • Obbligato in music traditionally means a passage is "obligatory" but has also been used to mean "optional".[8][9]
  • Overlook can mean "to make an accidental omission or error" or "to engage in close scrutiny or control".[10]
  • Oversight can mean "accidental omission or error" or "close scrutiny or control".[11]
  • Peruse can mean to "consider with attention and in detail" or "look over or through in a casual or cursory manner".[12][13]
  • Ravel can mean "to separate" (e.g. threads in cloth) or "to entangle".[14][15]
  • Sanction can mean "to give approval" or "to impose a penalty upon".[16]
  • Table can mean "to discuss a topic at a meeting" (British English) or "to postpone discussion of a topic" (American English). Canadian English uses both meanings of the word.[17]

Denotations and connotations of words can drift or branch over centuries. An apocryphal story relates how Charles II (or sometimes Queen Anne) described St Paul's Cathedral (using contemporaneous English) as "Script error: No such module "Lang".", with the meaning (rendered in modern English) of "amazing, awe-inspiring, and artistic".[18]

Other languages

Verbs

  • The Romanian verb a închiria, the French verb louer, the Afrikaans verb huur, the Finnish verb vuokrata[19] and the Spanish Script error: No such module "Lang".[20] and Script error: No such module "Lang".[21] mean "to rent" (as the lessee does) as well as "to let" (as the lessor does). The English verb Template:Wikt-lang can also describe either the lessee's or the lessor's role.
  • In Spanish Template:Wikt-lang (basic meaning "to give"), when applied to lessons or subjects, can mean "to teach", "to take classes" or "to recite", depending on the context.[22] Similarly with the French verb apprendre, which usually means "to learn" but may refer to the action of teaching someone.[23] Dutch Template:Wikt-lang and Afrikaans Template:Wikt-lang can mean "to teach" or "to learn".
  • In Hebrew the root נכר can mean "to recognize" or "to be a stranger [to not be recognized]" (Marcus Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature. New York: Pardes, 1950, vol. II,911-912). The root appears 4 times in Genesis 42:7-8 (Jonathan Sacks, The Koren Shalem Humash with Rashi and Onkelos. Jerusalem: Koren Publishers, 2025, 305).
  • In Greek some verbs that begin with the prefix "από-" (apo-) can have a contranym meaning. A prominent example is the verb "αποφράζω" means "to plug something, to fill a hole", and is usually used as a medical term, based on the original ancient Greek meaning. The more modern Greek meaning is "to unplug something, remove a blockage". Similar verbs are "απογεμίζω", that can both mean "to fill up to a brim" and "to empty completely" and "απομαθαίνω", that can both mean "to learn something very well" and "to forget something I learned". The meaning that negates the main action, is usually a more modern Greek one. The prefix "apo-" sometimes enhances an action and sometimes negates it.[24]
  • There are two Latin verbs Template:Wikt-lang, one meaning "to bring into shape," the other meaning "to bring out of shape."

Adverbs

Adjectives

In translation

Seeming contronyms can arise from translation. In Hawaiian, for example, aloha is translated both as "hello" and as "goodbye", but the essential meaning of the word is "love", whether used as a greeting or farewell. Similarly, 안녕 (annyeong) in Korean and שלום (shalom) in Hebrew can mean both "hello" and "goodbye" but the central meaning is "peace". The Italian greeting ciao is translated as "hello" or "goodbye" depending on the context; the original meaning was "at your service" (literally "(I'm your) slave").[35]

See also

  • X mark, which can either be synonymous or antonymous with a check mark in various contexts
  • Īhām, ambiguity used as a literary device in Middle Eastern poetry
  • -onym, suffix denoting a class of names
  • Oxymoron, contradiction used as a figure of speech
  • Semantics
  • Skunked term, a term that becomes difficult to use because it is evolving from one meaning to another, or is otherwise controversial

References

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  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."contronym". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. OCLC 1032680871.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Nym Words > Autoantonyms". www.fun-with-words.com. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003). Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 11, 77., where "enantiosemy" is mentioned along with "auto-opposite",
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Liberman, Anatoly (25 September 2013). "Etymology gleanings for September 2013". Oxford Etymologist. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 25 September 2013. The coexistence of two opposite meanings in a word is called enantiosemy, and the examples are rather numerous.
  5. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Herman, Judith (15 June 2018). "25 Words That Are Their Own Opposites". mentalfloss.com. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of DROP". www.merriam-webster.com. 2025-10-21. Retrieved 2025-10-27.
  7. ^ "Amelia Bedelia". LC Online Catalog. Library of Congress (lccn.loc.gov). Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  8. ^ "Obbligato" in Lectionary of Music, Nicolas Slonimsky. McGraw-Hill Template:ISBN
  9. ^ "Obbligato" in Collins Music Encyclopedia, Westrup & Harrison: Collins, London, 1959
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of OVERLOOK". www.merriam-webster.com. 2023-09-01. Retrieved 2023-09-12.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of OVERSIGHT". www.merriam-webster.com. 2023-09-07. Retrieved 2023-09-12.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of PERUSE". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 28 June 2020. to ... EFFECT
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Janus Words". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 28 June 2020. to ... EFFECT
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.The Canadian Oxford dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. p. 1283. ISBN 9780195418163. entangle...disentangle, unravel
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."'Un-': You Don't Always Have to Be So Negative". www.merriam-webster.com.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of SANCTION". www.merriam-webster.com. 1 November 2025. Retrieved 1 November 2025.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Barber, Katherine, ed. (2004). Canadian Oxford Dictionary (Second ed.). Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press Canada. p. 1580. ISBN 9780195418163.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.O’Toole, Garson (31 October 2012). "St Paul's Cathedral Is Amusing, Awful, and Artificial". Quote Investigator. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."sanakirja.org". Archived from the original on 2021-11-26.
  20. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Rubio Hancock, Jaime (28 August 2016). "19 autoantónimos: palabras que significan una cosa y la contraria". Verne (in español). Ediciones El País. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Prieto García-Seco, David (2021-05-28). "Rinconete. Lengua. «Huésped» o significar una cosa y la contraria". cvc.cervantes.es (in español). Centro Virtual Cervantes. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  22. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."dar". Diccionario de la lengua española (in español) (23 ed.). RAE-ASALE. 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2022. 14. tr. Impartir una lección, pronunciar una conferencia o charla. 15. tr. Recibir una clase. Ayer dimos clase de matemáticas. 16. tr. Dicho de un alumno: Recitar la lección.
  23. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."apprendre". Le Petit Robert, dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la langue française (in français). Dictionnaires Le Robert – SEJER. 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2023. I. (sens subjectif) Être avisé, informé de (qqch.). II. (sens objectif) 2. Donner la connaissance, le savoir, la pratique de (qqch.).
  24. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Sarantakos, Nikos (18 June 2014). "Απόφραξη σημαίνει βούλωμα ή ξεβούλωμα;". Οι λέξεις έχουν τη δική τους ιστορία. Archived from the original on 21 May 2025. Retrieved 21 May 2025.
  25. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Íslensk nútímamálsorðabók" (in íslenska). Árnastofnun. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
  26. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla (Ó Dónaill): ar ball". www.teanglann.ie.
  27. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.M. Horatius Piscinus. "On Auguries".
  28. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."sinister (adj.)". www.etymonline.com.
  29. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."nimio, nimia". Diccionario de la lengua española (in español) (23 ed.). RAE-ASALE. 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  30. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Renshaw, Steve; Ihara, Saori (2000). "A Tribute to Houei Nojiri". Retrieved November 29, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  31. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Planetary Linguistics". Archived from the original on December 17, 2007. Retrieved June 12, 2007.
  32. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Bathrobe. "Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese". cjvlang.com. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved November 29, 2011.
  33. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."「適当」の言い換え表現とは？ビジネスシーンでの活用方法 | Forbes JAPAN 公式サイト（フォーブス ジャパン）". forbesjapan.com (in 日本語). Retrieved 2026-04-14.
  34. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."dichoso". Diccionario de la lengua española (in español) (23 ed.). RAE-ASALE. 2021. Retrieved 2023-05-07.
  35. ^ Ronnie Ferguson, A linguistic history of Venice, 2007, Template:Isbn, p. 284

Further reading

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For a list of words relating to contronyms, see the English contranyms category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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