A word or phrase used to directly oppose or refute another word's meaning; a contradictory term.
From counter- + word. A linguistic term describing antonyms and opposition in language; it became more formal in 20th-century linguistics and semantics discussions.
It's basically a fancy name for antonyms and opposites—'hot' and 'cold' are counterwords, but the term shows that sometimes language is built on opposing pairs, which is how our brains organize meaning.
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