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This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.

If a Word conforms to a special rule, I call it God Word™.
Use the following examples to find the rule.

God Words™ Not God Words™
OFF OPIUM
CLIP RELAXED
WEATHER ADORNED
RESIGN SUNRISE
FAST FLOORED
DUST BEGONE
STONE CORNICE
CONTINUE ANTIDOTE
SCREEN EARSHOT

This satisfies the series' in-built assumption that every word can be independently tested for being a God Word. These are not the only examples of God Word. Many more, but a limited finite number exist.

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    $\begingroup$ Interesting that you specify that a limited finite number exist... but technically that would be true of any Word series ;) $\endgroup$
    – ferret
    Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 19:15
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    $\begingroup$ @frabjrew: Yeah, that hint made it easy to find the answer. $\endgroup$
    – gnovice
    Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 20:08

1 Answer 1

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A God Word™ is a word that...

can act as its own opposite (i.e., an auto-antonym or contranym). Also called a Janus word, named after the Roman god Janus who had two faces that looked in opposite directions. Some are listed in this Mental Floss article as well as the links above:

Off: activated (set off) or deactivated (turned off).
Clip: attach or cut off.
Weather: withstand (weather a storm) or wear away.
Resign: quit or sign up again.
Fast: stay in place (hold fast) or move quickly.
Dust: remove dust from or add dust to.
Stone: remove the stone from (as in fruit) or throw stones at.
Continue: keep doing something or (legally speaking) stop a proceeding (as in a continuance).
Screen: show (as in a movie) or conceal.

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  • $\begingroup$ Just write the reason why I call them God Words and you will get the coveted checkmark. :-) $\endgroup$
    – Sid
    Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 13:38
  • $\begingroup$ @Sid: I thought I did. Is it not related to the Roman god these words are named after? $\endgroup$
    – gnovice
    Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 13:56
  • $\begingroup$ Oh. Oops. My mistake. I didn't see that you had mentioned it. $\endgroup$
    – Sid
    Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 13:56
  • $\begingroup$ @sid, is that the original idea you had for stone? $\endgroup$
    – Dr Xorile
    Commented Mar 4, 2018 at 15:29
  • $\begingroup$ This is the sort of puzzle that cleaves me. $\endgroup$
    – Konchog
    Commented Mar 19, 2021 at 19:54

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