What’s up with contronyms?

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A word that has opposite meanings is called a contronym (also spelled contranym), an auto-antonym, or a Janus word.

Here are some contronyms:

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To see a longer version of the above list (from fun-with-words), click here.

When you use an contronym in your writing, make sure that you provide your reader with enough context clues to figure out which of the two contradictory meanings you mean.

Otherwise, you’ll be like this scumbag:

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Peruse can mean either “to examine carefully” or “to browse casually,” but the above sentence gives no indication of which definition is intended.

Therefore, provide enough context clues so that your intended meaning is clear:

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In the second example, we can infer that someone who has set aside six hours to peruse an essay plans “to examine it carefully.” There is no longer any ambiguity.

Context is key. (Right, Jake?) 😧

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