English no doubt is an interesting language and most people of the world make use of it for communication. It has borrowed many words from other languages like Latin and Greek so much that if these root words were to disappear from the language, then we might find it difficult to make sense of the sentence. Nevertheless, English is a strange and wonderful language.

You will be surprised to know that there exist words that are their own opposites. They are called contronyms. Here are a few examples –

Dust

Dust can mean to add fine particles. For example- She dusted the cake with powdered sugar.

Its opposite is to remove fine particles as in – Please dust the table before you keep your books there.

Left

Left can mean ‘remaining’ like- There are only 4 eggs left.

It can also mean ‘go away from’ as in – He left the room in a hurry

Off

Off can mean ‘to activate’. For example-  The burglar tripped on the alarm and it went off.

The opposite meaning of the word is ‘deactivate’ like- She switched off the fan.

Screen

One meaning of screen is ‘to show’, for example- The show will be screened by the channel tomorrow.

Its opposite meaning is ‘to hide or conceal’ as in – The product was screened from the public view.

Weather

Weather can mean to ‘withstand or come safely through’, for example- The ship weathered the storm

It can also mean the opposite that is ‘ wear away’ like- the rock was weathered.

Now I am bound to end this article. Well, there is a contronym in the previous sentence too. Any guess? Well, the answer is ‘ bound’ as it means ‘heading to’ and it can also mean ‘restrain’. Hope that was interesting enough.