A contronym is a word that has two meanings that are contradictory to each other. They are spelled and pronounced in the same way but can be confusing if used in the wrong context.
Here are a few examples.
| Bolt | He bolted the door. He bolted from the shop with the stolen goods. |
| Buckle To fasten To collapse | He buckled his shoes. His legs buckled from under him. |
| Dust To add something To remove something | She dusted the cake with icing sugar. He dusted the furniture. |
| Fast Moving quickly Fixed, unmoving | He ran fast from the house. The colours remained fast. |
| Hold up To support To hinder | My friend is always there to hold me up. She was held up by bad traffic. |
| Off Deactivated Activated | The light was turned off. The alarm was going off. |
| Screen To present To conceal | The film was screened in London, Paris and Los Angeles. He was screened by the curtain. |
| Seed To add something To remove | The gardener seeded the lawn. I seeded the tomato so I could add it to the salad. |
| Stone To remove To hit | I stoned the peaches to make the dessert. They stoned the villagers during the conflict. |
| Weather To withstand To wear away | The company weathered the recession. The rock was weathered. |
Susan Sugden Proofreading 