1
sanction — to authorize / to impose a penalty on.
8 Contronyms Examples
Use these examples to study structure, specificity, tone, and variation. They are demonstrations—not claims about a real person or organization unless the example itself makes that explicit.
Before you copy
What to notice in the examples
A responsible contronym list shows both attested senses in complete contexts and avoids claiming opposition where the meanings are merely different rather than genuinely contrasting.
- Start with the defining relationship behind contronyms: one word carrying contrasting senses in different contexts.
- Group examples by the feature that matters to a writer—sound, spelling, meaning, syllable pattern, formation, or usage—rather than presenting an unstructured list.
- Test each example in a sentence so readers can see how the word behaves in context and where common confusion occurs.
2
oversight — supervision / an accidental failure to notice something.
3
dust — to remove dust / to apply a fine powder, as in dusting sugar.
4
clip — to attach with a clip / to cut or trim off.
5
screen — to show publicly / to conceal or protect from view.
6
seed — to add seeds to / to remove seeds from, depending on usage.
7
weather — to withstand a difficulty / to be worn down by exposure.
8
fast — moving quickly / fixed firmly, as in holding fast.
Keep the underlying decision or pattern, then replace the subject, evidence, relationship, constraints, and tone with details that belong to your situation. If your final line still works after swapping only one noun, it may be too close to the example.