Word.ws English Dictionary

autoantonym

autoantonym noun: a word that has two opposing meanings.

Noun

autoantonym (plural autoantonyms)

  1. (rare) A word that has two opposing meanings.
    • Near-synonym: enantioseme

Synonyms of autoantonym

Forms of autoantonym

pluralautoantonyms

Origin of autoantonym

From auto- + antonym. Coined or reported as autantonym by Joseph T. Shipley in 1960.

Words formed from autoantonym

Questions about autoantonym

What does autoantonym mean?
Autoantonym means a word that has two opposing meanings.
What part of speech is autoantonym?
Autoantonym is a noun.
What is the plural of autoantonym?
The plural of autoantonym is autoantonyms.

Words near autoantonym in the dictionary

  1. autoantigen
  2. autoantigenic
  3. autoantigenicity
  4. autoantigens
  5. autoantisemitism
  6. autoantonym
  7. autoantonymic
  8. autoantonyms
  9. autoantonymy
  10. autoapomorph
  11. autoapomorphic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: autoantonym (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “autoantonym.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/autoantonym. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.