What do you call two words which have identical spellings but which have opposite or near opposite meanings? And how many such words are there? All I can think of at the moment is the word "cleave".
Anyone know any more such words and also the term for it?
Thanks!
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Two words with opposite meanings are called antonyms. So autoantonyms are words that are the opposite of themselves.
adumbrate
aught
bill
bolt
buckle…
See
http://www.fun-with-words.com/nym_autoantonyms.html
for more
They have variously been called contranyms, contronyms, antilogies, Janus words (after the two-faced Greek mythical figure, from which "January" also derives), and enantiodromes.
a homophone can be like that. Like bear and bear. Bear can be an animal or it could mean like you’re carrying something.
Homonym >.>
These words are called homonyms.
Read more about them here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homonym
I’ve done it at a-level
homophone
Great, Penney has come up with a lot of info on this type of word and the terms that have been used for it.
I had noticed this little oddity some time ago but just now have checked to see how the word(s) originated. Interestingly, the two meanings have different past tenses and different, though very similar, roots:
Cleave meaning to break apart or split—takes the past tense clove, cleft or cleaved, past part. cloven, cleft or cleaved; and comes from the OE cleofan f. Gmc. / Cleave meaning to stick fast or adhere—takes the past tense cleaved or clave [foll. by "to"], and comes from the OE cleofian, clifian f. WGmc.
And I’d just like to add that "cleave" and "cleave" are indeed also homonyms—separate words that happen to be identical in form. They are NOT homophones, which are words that sound the same but have different spelling and meaning.
Words which are spelled the same but have different meanings are called "homonyms".