The Linguistic Anomaly of Contronyms, Single Words With Opposing Meanings

Dr. Erica Brozovsky, PhD of the PBS series Otherwords explained the contrary concept of Janus words or contronyms, a linguistic term in which a single word has two completely opposing meanings.

We love linguistic oddities. Like these words that are their own antonyms!

Examples include the words dust, which can simultaneously mean to remove dust or to sprinkle on, lease, which can mean rent to or rent from, and left, which can mean either remaining or exiting.