by Lois E. Huffman
Each edition of “Viva Vocabulary!” focuses on different word genres. The goal is to help students
(re)discover the joy of language and the expressive power of vocabulary.
Lois Huffman is an adjunct faculty member at NC State
University and a consultant with the Center for Applied
Linguistics. She enjoys providing professional development in literacy and language for schools and local councils. Contact her at loishuffman@gmail.com.
Many students seem to enjoy antonyms , words that are opposite in meaning.
Some words, such as straight have many antonyms (e.g., comic, curly, curved, diluted, indirect ) , depending on their various meanings and grammatical functions. Other words (e.g., fortnight, pear, squirrel ) have no antonyms.
Children first learn about antonyms in the primary grades. As students progress in school, exploring antonyms in depth can help them grasp distinctions in texts and provide enlightening contrasts in their own writing. Many lists of antonyms can be found online: buildvocabulary.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/importantantonyms-list/ (extensive list); enchantedlearning.com/wordlist/opposites.shtml
(common antonyms); and freelanguagestuff.com/antonyms-and-synonyms/
(antonyms in developmental order).
Teaching Ideas:
1.
Use children’s literature to introduce the concept of antonyms. Some picture books about antonyms are at the-best-childrens-books.org/kids-books-onantonyms.html
.
2.
Have students classify familiar antonym pairs as gradable or complementary .
Gradable (a.k.a. scalar) antonyms, such as hot – cold and fast – slow , are the end points of a scale or continuum. There are points in between that can be described in words. Other antonym pairs, such as true – false and alive – dead are complementary (a.k.a. polar), because they are absolute, undebatable opposites in some dimension.
Lists of gradable and complementary antonyms are at fun-with-words.com/nym_antonyms.html
.
3.
Encourage the class to collect somewhat unusual, but useful antonym pairs
(e.g., ascend – descend; concave – convex; devolve – evolve; distal – proximal; don – doff; ingress – egress; nocturnal – diurnal; persuade – dissuade; metrosexual – retrosexual; potable – non-potable; prone – supine; symphony – cacophony; waxing – waning; utopia – dystopia; zenith – nadir ). Have students

record their finds on a class wiki or in a personal vocabulary journal or writer’s notebook using Evernote or another free notetaking tool. Students also might use a free digital resource such as Artrage to illustrate their antonym pairs.
4.
Help students discover that although antonym pairs are opposite in meaning, they have the same general category and part of speech. Use an example, such as the following: Proximal and distal are both adjectives (part of speech) specifying location (general category). The former refers to being near a central point, while the latter indicates something situated farther away.
After working together as a class to analyze another pair of antonyms, have small groups look at the similarities and differences between other interesting antonym pairs―possibly the somewhat unusual, but useful ones the class has collected.
5.
Explore derivational antonyms (e.g., literate – illiterate, appear – disappear, merciful – merciless ) that are created by adding prefixes, such as de, dis-, in-, im-, il-, ir-, mal, non-, un-, and underor polar suffixes, such as -less , and -ful .
Working in groups, have students compile lists of these types of antonyms and make engaging physical or digital posters to reinforce the prefix and suffix meanings. For example, one poster might raise the question: “Are we
Americans well-fed, yet undernourished?
Let’s weigh the evidence.” Another poster might ask: “ Tactful or tactless ? Which describes you?”
6.
Use online games to reinforce students’ knowledge of antonyms. Some games can be found at gamequarium.org/dir/Readquarium/Vocabulary/Antonyms/ , vocabulary.co.il/antonyms/ , abcya.com/synonyms_antonyms.htm
, and learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary_games/antonyms.html
.
7.
Invite students to create a diamante to think more deeply about two antonyms (Refer to “Write Away! A Technique to Help Polish the Craft of
Writing” by Margariet Ruurs in Reading Today , October/November 2010, p.
46). Students might use the diamante template at readwritethink.org/parentafterschool-resources/games-tools/diamante-poems-a-30185.html# activity1 . Here is an example of a student’s diamante from Ruurs’ article:
Fire hot, red blazing, camping, raging warm, light, clear, cold refreshing, melting, snowing solid, fun ice.
8.
Have students work with a partner to complete alphabet antonym grids like the one below. After students have tackled the grid for several minutes, allow

them to consult a print or digital dictionary or thesaurus. Encourage interested students to also create grids for their peers to complete.
First Letter: S
ANTONYMS TARGET WORDS hard sensible healthy neat soft praise
Key: friendly
silly, sick, sloppy, scold, spiteful
This teaching idea comes from Teaching Vocabulary in All Classrooms by Camille Blachowicz and Peter Fisher (Allyn & Bacon, 2010). To construct an antonym grid, write down 5 or 6 target words that start with the same letter. (Use the right-hand column.) Next, in the lefthand column, list an antonym for each. Give students the grid without the target words that start with the same letter. Make sure that students know that they are to supply the missing target words, all of which have the same first letter and are opposite in meaning of the words in the left-hand column.
9.
Help students internalize the meanings of antonym pairs (e.g., ebullient – grounded ; energetic – lethargic ; haughty – humble ) by illustrating them and their relationships. For example, haughty could be written in large bold black script radiating yellow light at the top of a twin staircase while humble is written in small, white sanserif letters on the floor at the bottom of the stairs
( nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/403 ).
Further capitalize on students’ attraction to opposites by introducing them to several other types of words that incorporate contrasting ideas: contranyms, merisms, and oxymorons .
Contranym (a.k.a. autoantonym, antagonym, contronym, Janus word, selfantonym, self-contradicting word) – word with two meanings that contradict one another (e.g., bound, bash, cleave, custom, dust, fast, fix, oversight, sanction, screen, strike, temper, trim ) Often the contradictory definition arises from use as slang or in sarcasm (en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary_of_auto-antonyms ).
Many contranyms are listed at dailywritingtips.com/75-contronyms-words-withcontradictory-meanings/
. More information on these “two-faced words,” as Anu
Garg calls them, is at fun-with-words.com/nym_ autoantonyms.html
.
Teaching Ideas:
1.
Explain that contranyms, in essence, are opposites of themselves. If needed, share some of the examples from A.Word.A.Day
(AWAD). (Contranyms have

been a weekly theme at AWAD several times.) Then read aloud some of
Richard Lederer’s observations about them in Crazy English (Pocket Books,
1998). Afterwards, analyze the humor and paradoxical nature of Lederer’s examples.
2.
Encourage students to collect examples of slang contranyms that are suitable to share at school (e.g., bad, sick, wicked ). Students will encounter many of these contradictory words on TV, in movies, and in everyday conversations.
3.
Invite the class to look for contranyms that are phrasal verbs (e.g., verb + preposition; verb + adverb; verb + adverb + preposition). Some examples are give out , hold up, keep up, and wind up .
4.
Engage in a reflective discussion about why and how some of these “words with split personalities” ( wordsmith.org
, 2011) came to be. Invite students to also consider whether the original meanings of the words will disappear from common knowledge and use as Richard Lederer maintains in Crazy English
(Pocket Books, 1998). For example, few people are aware that awful also means “full of awe, awe-inspiring.”
Merism (a.k.a. polar word pair) – figure of speech in which the whole of something is referred to by its parts The most common type of merism cites the two ends of the spectrum or extremities of the whole, for example: Alpha and
Omega , from A to Z , head to toe, move heaven and earth , “Stars and Stripes,” and search high and low . Merisms are often seen in poetry and the Bible.
Teaching Ideas:
1.
Let students know that lawyers sometimes use merisms in the documents they write. Share some examples of merisms from wills found at en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Merism . Then ask students to speculate why this style of writing might have developed in the legal profession (e.g., effort to be as inclusive as possible, explicitness, clarity, brevity).
2.
Bring students’ attention to merisms comprised of three or more words which are aspects of a place or thing. Share examples with the class and discuss what they mean (e.g., hook, line, and sinker = accepting something without hesitation or reservation; lock, stock, and barrel = something in its entirety; sun, sea, and sand = beach vacation destination). Invite students to look for other examples (e.g., the red, white, and blue = flag of the U.S; reading, writing, and arithmetic = education / school).
Oxymoron – figure of speech in which incongruous or opposite terms are combined Some oxymorons are inadvertently created by errors in speech, while others are crafted for literary, dramatic, or humorous effect. Some examples of oxymorons are bittersweet , definite maybe, donation fee, ecological

tourism (ecotourism), genuine imitation, plastic glasses, pretty ugly, random order, sanitary landfill, terribly nice, wicked good, and working vacation. As the examples suggest, most common forms of these verbal paradoxes involve adjective-noun combinations.
Lists of oxymorons can be found at thinks.com/words/oxymorons.htm
and oxymoronlist.com
. (Some of the oxymorons may not be appropriate for young learners.)
Teaching Ideas:
1.
Invite students to designate their favorite and least favorite oxymorons and give reasons for their choices. Working with a partner, students should then make lists of the oxymorons they like and dislike and post them on the class website or a bulletin board at school. If desired, students might also click on their favorite (or most hated) oxymorons at oxymoronlist.com/ and leave a comment giving the reasons for their preferences.
2.
Help students appreciate the humor in oxymorons by sharing illustrations from Who Ordered the Jumbo Shrimp? And Other Oxymorons by Jon Agee
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002) and / or Jumbo Shrimp, the Ultimate
Oxymoron Book by Bruce Fein (Bruce Fein Publishing, 2003). Then have students work in groups to make a multimedia presentation of their favorite oxymorons using a free multimedia slideshow tool such as Animoto or
Photopeach .
3.
Have older students explore oxymoron-like phrases that suggest a cynical or negative opinion of a particular phenomenon or group (e.g., business ethics, government workers, military intelligence, job security, rap music ). Students should research the origins of such phrases and their prevalence in modern
American speech. Small groups might conduct a debate about a specific phrase that may be considered oxymoronic by some (e.g., Rap is a valid musical genre. VS. Rap is not really music . OR Businesses can be ethical.
VS.
Ethics is the antithesis of business.
)
4.
Encourage interested students to further examine the paradoxical nature of oxymorons by reading Richard Lederer’s material on oxymoronology at funwith-words.com/oxym_oxymoronology.html
. Readers will find that the word oxymoron itself is an oxymoron meaning “sharp-dull.”