Words that also mean their opposites — they have been called “contronyms,” as well as “antagonyms” and “Janus words” — are curious creatures, and while many languages have a few of them, few are ...

Contronym (noun), a word that can also mean the opposite of itself, a feature more common in English than in any Indian language. USAGE: When the media said President Trump had sanctioned Iranian oil ...

Your mom asked you to pick up shelled pistachios at the store, but you’d better ask whether she wants nuts still in their shells or those with their shells already removed. Because the word shelled ...

Here’s an ambiguous sentence for you: “Because of the agency’s oversight, the corporation’s behavior was sanctioned.” Does that mean, “Because the agency oversaw the company’s behavior, they imposed a ...

A recent headline declared that the United States had sanctioned Iranian oil supplies. Many readers weren't sure what the newspaper meant, since “sanction” is a contronym - a word that can also mean ...

A contronym, also known as a self-antonym, is a word for the rare words that have homographs (words that are spelled the exact same way) that are also antonyms (words with opposite meanings).