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For example

  • "1 in 20 Americans suffer from..." and "1 out of 20 Americans suffer from..."
  • "it is down to you" and "it is up to you"

They seem like great ways to add to creative writing.

Is there a specific term for these words? (like homonym, heteronym, etc)

jth41
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    It is down to you and It is up to you don't mean the same thing at all. Down to you means all other have been eliminated leaving only you. Up to you means the decision is yours (regardless of how that was achieved). – Jim Jul 31 '12 at 06:14
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    You've got two chances of having this question survive on EL&U: fat and slim. – Jim Jul 31 '12 at 06:43
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    @Jim: He could(n't) care less. – David Schwartz Jul 31 '12 at 07:05
  • See this. It was the hottest question on stackexchange for a while, too – notablytipsy Jul 31 '12 at 07:27
  • @asymptotically thanks for the link. I don't see my question making it to quite that status ;) – jth41 Jul 31 '12 at 09:36
  • @Jim why is it that it won't survive? – jth41 Jul 31 '12 at 09:37
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    @John - Jim probably feels, as I do too, that the question is open-ended and has no definitive single answer. – Ste Jul 31 '12 at 09:50
  • I agree with @Ste. I voted to close this question because we generally discourage list-type questions as they give no definitive answers. – Kit Z. Fox Jul 31 '12 at 12:07
  • We are looking for thoughtful, intriguing questions posed as you would ask them of an expert, including evidence that you have put effort and research into the question. Please edit to share the results of your research. – MetaEd Sep 13 '16 at 18:38
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    The question has fundamentally changed, I'm not sure that's kosher, might have been better to leave this list-question and closed and started a fresh post, but either way the short answer to the updated question is *contranyms*. Not sure that covers prepositional phrases like "in" vs "out of" or idioms like "fat chance" vs "slim chance", but it certainly does cover word pairs like "bad" and "good" both meaning "impressive". – Dan Bron Sep 13 '16 at 18:38
  • Voted to reopen this 6-year-old question simply because its 6-year-old edit made it eligible for @DanBron's 6-year-old comment-as-answer (preferably working in the obvious Run D.M.C. quote). – Andy Bonner Feb 18 '22 at 21:09
  • In support of Dan Bron: 75 Contronyms (Words with Contradictory Meanings) - https://www.dailywritingtips.com/75-contronyms-words-with-contradictory-meanings/ – Greybeard Feb 19 '22 at 13:18

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