contronymy
/kənˈtɹɑn.ə.mi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonym: enantiosemy"
- "Contronymy, a phenomenon which has received much attention in recent years, has often been described as sense opposition at the micro-level."
- "Today 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.'"
- "Kronasser (1952) and Meid (1979) argue that language change results in the occurrence of contronymy in natural language."
Etymology
From contronym + -y; also, by surface analysis, contro- + -nymy.
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kənˈtɹɑn.ə.mi/