Jul

Spelled the Same, but Opposite?

I just had my mind blown by the English language, yet again. There’s actually a word whose opposite (or close to it) is the same word, spelled the same, but pronounced differently. That word is: resigned. “Jon resigned his position on the basketball team.” vs. “Jon resigned his contract with the team for one more season.” As in, that BP CEO who resigned and got an $18 million bonus.

Not knowing if I was using resigned incorrectly, I had to look it up. Merriam Webster and Dictionary.com demonstrate the disparity on the front page of Google. Pretty cool – I feel like I just won the word nerd lottery.

Mjswart

That's awesome.
Reminds me also of the word cleave (which is not as cool because neither meaning of the word is common).

Cleave:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cleave

The first meaning is to stick and the second meaning is to split. Huh?!
Dori Senos

The Mandarin language can be complicated too… “ma” for example has four different tones it can be spoken in, each with a completely different meaning. (By changing the inflection of the word.) Fortunately they use a different character for each meaning, so in print you know what you are reading. Unfortunate for the person who speaks Mandarin as a second language and goofs on the tone, calling his mother in law a horse.
Geurts

Oh man .. that's another great one. Notice that the two opposite definitions have almost the same origins
Lindzy Humphreys

you should read the book Mother Tongue, by Bill Bryson, and your mind may explode. I like the new blogy look, D.
logoian

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dariusz grabka

Spelled the Same, but Opposite?