Today, I look at some of the most confusing words in English. Contronyms (which can also be spelt contranyms) are words that have two opposite meanings.

Who would have thought that a word could have two meanings that are completely opposite?  This is English, so anything is possible! And there are plenty of them. They go by many different names like auto-antonyms, antagonyms and Janus words, just to name a few.

Let me assure you that these contronyms have not been invented just to confuse English learners!

This is simply something that happens over a long period of time. Different words from other languages are introduced, or people just misunderstand the meaning and use it wrongly. Then the word catches on until so many people do it that it becomes accepted.

These crazy illogical words also appear in many other languages, so your language is probably guilty of having a few as well!

Here are the contronyms that I look at in this video:

• Literally
• Sick
• Fight with
• Barrack
• Oversight (+ verbs – oversee, overlook)
• Throw out/toss out
• Rollicking

Until next time!