heterological

Heterological is a term used in the philosophy of language to describe a word that does not describe itself. Its counterpart, autological, denotes a word that describes itself. The concept is often discussed as a simple, illustrative case of self-reference and semantic predication.

The idea behind the heterological term is straightforward: if a word is heterological, it fails to describe itself; if it is autological, it does describe itself. The classic issue, known as the heterological paradox, arises when one asks whether the word “heterological” itself is heterological. If “heterological” is heterological, then it does not describe itself, which seems consistent with being heterological. But declaring it heterological would itself be a description of the word, suggesting it does describe itself, a contradiction. If it is not heterological (i.e., autological), then it describes itself, which again leads to a paradox with its own label.

Various analyses have been proposed to resolve or sidestep the paradox. Some treat the problem as a semantic puzzle that cannot be resolved within ordinary true-false logic and may require more nuanced or non-classical logics. Others suggest restricting the applicability of autological and heterological to avoid self-contradictory cases, or treating the paradox as a linguistic or grammatical quirk rather than a genuine logical truth condition.

Heterological remains a classic example in discussions of self-reference, linguistic categorization, and semantic paradox, illustrating how simple self-descriptions can generate deep philosophical questions. See also autological, self-reference, semantic paradox.