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A member of a pair of opposites can generally be determined by the question What is the opposite of X ? 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 ...
For example, a sports team that is a heavy underdog and loses narrowly to a superior opponent might claim a moral victory, acquitting themselves well even in defeat. [1] A team that plays fairly and loses to a cheating team might also claim a moral victory in spite of the loss.
For example, he describes how a certain Germain, was born a female named Mary, who "that by straining himself in a leap his male organs came out" at the age of 22. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] He also cites the stigmata of Dagobert and Saint Francis , and when the bride Laodice worshipping Venus cured her husband Amasis, King of Egypt of his impotence , among ...
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.
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 ...
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.
In linguistics, converses or relational antonyms are pairs of words that refer to a relationship from opposite points of view, such as parent/child or borrow/lend. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The relationship between such words is called a converse relation . [ 2 ]
The most common form of oxymoron involves an adjective–noun combination of two words, but they can also be devised in the meaning of sentences or phrases. One classic example of the use of oxymorons in English literature can be found in this example from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, where Romeo strings together thirteen in a row: [11]