contranymy

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US/kənˈtɹɑn.ə.mi/US/kənˈtɹɒn.ə.mi/

A form of contronymy — The quality of being a contronym or including contronyms.

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Meanings

nouncontranymy (uncountable)
  1. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of contronymy.

    In that light Noegel might want to consider Janus parallelism as an intersecting set with contranymy.

    1996, The Journal of the Association of Graduates in Near Eastern Studies
    1 more example

    There are cross-linguistic examples of words that allegedly mean x and the opposite of x; this phenomenon would be a facet of polysemy and is commonly referred to as auto-antonymy or contranymy.

    2015, Saskia Peels, “The Semantic Paradox”, in Hosios: A Semantic Study of Greek Piety

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
autoantonymyenantiosemy

Origin

From contranym + -y; also, by surface analysis, contra- + -nymy.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with contranymy

economyastronomytaxonomyautonomyDeuteronomyagronomygastronomyaeronomymetonymytaphonomybionomytheonomyanthroponomyarchaeastronomychemotaxonomycontronymycytotaxonomydactylonomydiseconomygeonomyheteronomyineconomynonautonomysemiautonomy
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Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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