antiphrase

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noun

A word or phrase used in a sense that is different to its literal or usual meaning.

Scrabble 15
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Meanings

nounantiphrase (plural antiphrases)

plural antiphrases

  1. A word or phrase used in a sense that is different to its literal or usual meaning.

    [T]he first man came right up to me and held out his hand in the European manner of greeting, save only that it was the left hand instead of the right, and in an English the most mutilated and full of antiphrases I had ever heard said that he was my friend[.]

    1946, Jack McLaren, The Oldest Inhabitants, quoted in An Australian Muster, page 10

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

intraphase
Cite this entry
APA

antiphrase. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/antiphrase

MLA

“antiphrase.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/antiphrase. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “antiphrase,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/antiphrase.

Source: antiphrase on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.