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Antiphrasis is the rhetorical device of saying the opposite of what is actually meant in such a way that it is obvious what the true intention is. [1] Some authors treat and use antiphrasis just as irony, euphemism or litotes. [2] When the antiphrasal use is very common, the word can become an auto-antonym, [3] having opposite meanings ...
Opponents state that this usage is contrary to its original meaning, [7] that it is nonsensical for a word to mean two opposite things, [7] that the use of the word literally as an intensifier can be substituted by other words ("‘absolutely", "definitely", "unquestionably" [8]) and that it makes the speaker look ridiculous. [8]
The term antonym (and the related antonymy) is commonly taken to be synonymous with opposite, but antonym also has other more restricted meanings. Graded (or gradable) antonyms are word pairs whose meanings are opposite and which lie on a continuous spectrum (hot, cold).
Parenthesis – an explanatory or qualifying word, clause, or sentence inserted into a passage that is not essential to the literal meaning. Parody – comic imitation of something or somebody. Paronomasia – a pun, a play on words, often for humorous effect. Pathos – the emotional appeal to an audience in an argument; one of Aristotle's ...
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A study by Chris Moulin of Leeds University asked 92 volunteers to write out "door" 30 times in 60 seconds. In July 2006, at the 4th International Conference on Memory in Sydney, he reported that 68 percent of volunteers showed symptoms of jamais vu, such as beginning to doubt that "door" was a real word.
A contronym is a word with two opposite meanings. For example, the word cleave can mean "to cut apart" or "to bind together". This feature is also called enantiosemy, [1] [2] enantionymy (enantio-means "opposite"), antilogy or autoantonymy. An enantiosemic term is by definition polysemic.
An unpaired word is one that, according to the usual rules of the language, would appear to have a related word but does not. [1] Such words usually have a prefix or suffix that would imply that there is an antonym, with the prefix or suffix being absent or opposite.