Meanings
- uncountableThe quality of being a contronym or including contronyms.
Near-synonym: enantiosemy
3 more examples
Contronymy, a phenomenon which has received much attention in recent years, has often been described as sense opposition at the micro-level.
2008, BI Karaman, “On contronymy”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 21, number 2Today the same word can mean 'wholly', 'to a considerable extent' ('Quite the little madam, aren't we?') or '(only) to some extent', 'partially' or 'somewhat' ('feeling quite tired'), though theoretical linguists explain this slightly differently: 'At the micro-level the lexical unit represents a case for contronymy of antonymy type if it can be subjected to gradation and if it comprises at least two senses which are contradictory within one aspect.'
2011, Tony Thorne, The 100 Words That Make The English, →ISBNKronasser (1952) and Meid (1979) argue that language change results in the occurrence of contronymy in natural language.
2013, Hye Seung Lee, “Semantics of COM”, in Selected Papers from the Seventeenth College-Wide Conference for Students in Languages, Linguistics, & LiteratureSynonyms: antilogy, autoantonymy, enantionymy, enantiosemy
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe quality of being a contronym or including contronyms.
Origin
From contronym + -y; also, by surface analysis, contro- + -nymy.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French énantiosémie
- énantiosémiethe quality of being a contronym or including contronyms
Hungarian antagonímia, kontronímia
- antagonímiathe quality of being a contronym or including contronyms
- kontronímiathe quality of being a contronym or including contronyms
- enantioszémiathe quality of being a contronym or including contronyms
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with contronymy
Cite this entry
contronymy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contronymy
“contronymy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contronymy. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “contronymy,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contronymy.
Source: contronymy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.