"Janus word" meaning in English

See Janus word in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: Janus words [plural]
Etymology: From Janus, the two-faced Roman god of doorways and transitions. Head templates: {{en-noun}} Janus word (plural Janus words)
  1. A word that has two contradictory meanings; contranym.

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for Janus word meaning in English (1.9kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "From Janus, the two-faced Roman god of doorways and transitions.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Janus words",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "Janus word (plural Janus words)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1971, Richard J. Norman, Reasons for Actions: A Critique of Utilitarian Rationality, page 67",
          "text": "A pro-attitude cannot be regarded as rational unless it can be justified by showing that the object of the attitude can be characterized by means of a Janus-word.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Nancy Dena Goldfarb, The poetics of drowning, page 37",
          "text": "The poet is caught in the contradiction of this Janus word. Both and neither speaking and/nor silent, the poet becomes the contradiction in which the title \"Dichtermuth\" involves him.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996, Scott B. Noegel, Janus Parallelism in the Book of Job, page 187",
          "text": "The difference between them is that in Janus parallelism, the referents of the Janus word do not contain the same root as the Janus word; in antanaclasis, the same root is repeated with a different meaning.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A word that has two contradictory meanings; contranym."
      ],
      "id": "en-Janus_word-en-noun-~PNLpQa3",
      "links": [
        [
          "contranym",
          "contranym"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Janus word"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From Janus, the two-faced Roman god of doorways and transitions.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Janus words",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "Janus word (plural Janus words)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English eponyms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1971, Richard J. Norman, Reasons for Actions: A Critique of Utilitarian Rationality, page 67",
          "text": "A pro-attitude cannot be regarded as rational unless it can be justified by showing that the object of the attitude can be characterized by means of a Janus-word.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Nancy Dena Goldfarb, The poetics of drowning, page 37",
          "text": "The poet is caught in the contradiction of this Janus word. Both and neither speaking and/nor silent, the poet becomes the contradiction in which the title \"Dichtermuth\" involves him.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996, Scott B. Noegel, Janus Parallelism in the Book of Job, page 187",
          "text": "The difference between them is that in Janus parallelism, the referents of the Janus word do not contain the same root as the Janus word; in antanaclasis, the same root is repeated with a different meaning.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A word that has two contradictory meanings; contranym."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "contranym",
          "contranym"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Janus word"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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