antiphrasis
/ænˈtɪfrəsɪs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 0.00 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Use of a word or phrase in a sense opposite of its literal meaning, especially for ironic or humorous effect.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "When they called him “bad as hell”, they weren’t calling him evil. It was antiphrasis."
- "By the turn of this century the situation concerning logic was quite simple: there was basically one logic (classical logic) which could be used (by changing the set of proper axioms) in various situations. Logic was about pure reasoning. Brouwer’s criticism destroyed this dream of unity: classical logic was not suited for constructive features and therefore it lost its universality. Now by the end of the century we are faced with an incredible number of logics-some of them only named ‘logic’ by antiphrasis, some of them introduced on serious grounds."
Etymology
Borrowed from Late Latin antiphrasis, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀντίφρασις (antíphrasis) (< phrazein "declare").
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: antiphrasis, ἀντίφρασις