phantonym
/ˈfæntənɪm/
phantonym noun: a word that appears to mean one thing but actually means something else. Such terms are predisposed toward catachrestic use (including malapropisms) by speakers and writers.
Noun
phantonym (plural phantonyms)
- A word that appears to mean one thing but actually means something else. Such terms are predisposed toward catachrestic use (including malapropisms) by speakers and writers.
- High-school juniors across the country, facing their first Preliminary SAT exams, are engrossed in improving their vocabulary. Here's a thought that might help: A word that means the opposite of another is an antonym; a word that looks as if it means one thing but means quite another could be...2009 September 25, Jack Rosenthal, “Phantonym. On Language column”, in New York Times Magazine, archived from the original on 13 Jun 2021, retrieved 07 Feb 2023
phantonym meaning in Tamil
phantonym in Tamil
- ஒருசொல்இருபொருள்
Forms of phantonym
| plural | phantonyms |
|---|
Origin of phantonym
From phant(om) + -onym, with self-aware influence from antonym; Macmillan Dictionary reports that corpus searches have found that the word seems to have been coined several times [probably independently], with several meanings all related to wordplay, accidental gaps, or catachresis, as long ago as 1993 (by Irwin M. Berent, referring to comical neologisms such as bebig, analogous to embiggen) and most recently in 2009, by Jack Rosenthal, as an -onym term for words whose sound or appearance makes them liable to be used catachrestically.
Words that rhyme with phantonym
Questions about phantonym
- What does phantonym mean?
- Phantonym means a word that appears to mean one thing but actually means something else. Such terms are predisposed toward catachrestic use (including malapropisms) by speakers and writers.
- What is phantonym in Tamil?
- Phantonym in Tamil is ஒருசொல்இருபொருள். See Phantonym meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is phantonym?
- Phantonym is a noun.
- How do you pronounce phantonym?
- Phantonym is pronounced /ˈfæntənɪm/.
- What is the plural of phantonym?
- The plural of phantonym is phantonyms.
Words near phantonym in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: phantonym (page history and authors); phantonym (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-phantonym.wav.
Cite this entry: “phantonym.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/phantonym. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.