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ziatro Veteran user Havant, England 322 Posts |
While listening to the radio today I heard a woman use a word that I thought was the total opposite of the meaning I knew. I looked it up in my dictionary, and there to my amazement, were two definitions for this word and they were the complete opposite of each other.It's a six letter word and not uncommon. It is spelt exactly the same way in each instance. Can you name it?
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Scott Cram Inner circle 2678 Posts |
Assume?
Buckle? Cleave? Peruse? Pitted? Seeded? Those are the first common six-letter contronyms that popped into my mind. |
dr chutney Special user United Kingdom 518 Posts |
Dollop?
Screen?
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ziatro Veteran user Havant, England 322 Posts |
Sorry I havn't replied recently but I fried the motherboard on my computer and have only just got it back. I really didn't realise such words were called contranyms, yet alone realise there were so many!! The word I was looking for which was on your list Scott was CLEAVE.On one hand it means to unite and on the other to split or tear apart. On some of the others you might need a little more imagination to see them as perfect opposites. Thanks for the replies
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cosermann Regular user Indiana 144 Posts |
Just a few quotations from literature illustrating the meaning:
"Search men’s governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they CLEAVE to." Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. iv. 38 "Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall CLEAVE unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Genesis 2:24 “What tumbling cloud did you CLEAVE, Yellow-eyed hawk of the mind, Last evening? that I, who had sat Dumbfounded before a knave, Should give to my friend A pretence of wit.” Yeats, from The Hawk Regards,
Regards,
Eric |
Scott Cram Inner circle 2678 Posts |
Assume: To actually have (To assume office) vs. To hope to have ("He assumed he would be elected.")
Buckle: to hold together (e.g. buckle your belt) vs. to fall apart (e.g., buckle under pressure) Cleave: To adhere tightly vs. To cut apart Peruse: Read in a casual way, skim (To peruse the Sunday paper) vs. to read with great attention to detail or to study carefully (To peruse a report on financial conditions) Pitted: Pitted olives are olives with the pits taken out, but pitted skin is skin with pits in it! Seeded: Clouds are seeded (something is added) to produce rain vs. grapes which are seeded (the seeds are removed). Also, if one removes the seeds from cherries they are seeded, but if one sows grass seed in the yard, the yard is seeded. |
ziatro Veteran user Havant, England 322 Posts |
I stand corrected
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