contronym.
A word that has two opposing meanings, such as cleave (“stick together” or “split apart”).
Meaning & usage
A word that has two opposing meanings, such as cleave (“stick together” or “split apart”).
Where this word comes from
From contr(a)- + -onym. Coined 1962 by Jack Herring. Note that the vowel of the suffix generally supersedes the vowel of the prefix, hence coined as contronym, rather than contranym.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.