Advertisement
Advertisement
antonym
[ an-tuh-nim ]
antonym
/ ænˈtɒnɪməs; ˈæntənɪm /
noun
- a word that means the opposite of another word
``empty'' is an antonym of ``full''
Derived Forms
- antonymous, adjective
Other Words From
- an·ton·y·mous [an-, ton, -, uh, -m, uh, s], anto·nymic adjective
- an·tony·my noun
Word History and Origins
Origin of antonym1
Compare Meanings
How does antonym compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Example Sentences
In the new study, Union College psychologist Cameron Kay asked 400 participants on MTurk to respond to 27 pairs of “semantic antonyms” such as “I do not sleep well” and “I sleep soundly.”
As an antonym to the Biden and Democratic party’s empathetic catchphrase, “we feel your pain,” an appropriate catchphrase for the vindictive Trumpian party would be, “we are your pain.”
The antonyms of diversity, equity and inclusion are uniformity, inequality and exclusion.
To allay confusion, “Squid Game: The Challenge” is a living antonym of authenticity in that it is one of the most thoroughly engineered reality competition shows on TV.
Also, Lynell George’s “City of Specters,” which began with Truman Capote’s report that most L.A. students, asked to specify the antonym of “youth,” answered “death.”
Advertisement
More About Antonym
What is an antonym?
An antonym is a word that has the opposite meaning of another word. For example, the word small means of limited size, while big means of large size. Happy, a feeling of gladness, is an antonym of sad, a feeling of sorrow.
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs can all have antonyms, though not all do. A word can also have multiple antonyms. For example, the words fast, quick, speedy, swift, and rapid are all antonyms of the word slow.
Even antonym has an antonym! The opposite of antonym is synonym, which is a word that has the same meaning as another word. For example, a synonym of the word fast would be quick—both describe something that moves with speed.
If you are looking for some spicy new antonyms to use in your writing, you can find them using Thesaurus.com.
Why is antonym important?
The first records of antonym come from around 1865. It combines the prefix ant(i)-, meaning “opposite of” and (syn)onym, meaning “a word having the same meaning or nearly the same meaning as another.”
A word may not have any antonyms. This is especially likely when the word has a very specific meaning or is a proper noun. For example, the words three and Pacific Ocean do not have any antonyms.
If you don’t know what a word means, antonyms can help you figure it out. For example, you might not know what the word incandescent means. Once you find out that the words dark and dull are antonyms of incandescent, though, you can be pretty sure it has something to do with brightness or bright light.
Did you know ... ?
Even slang words can have antonyms! In this article, we explore some antonyms of commonly used slang terms.
What are real-life examples of antonym?
You can use antonyms to describe many of the things you see around you. You can probably think of some antonyms you could use to describe these two dogs in this picture:
@dog_rates, Aug 31, 2021
Antonyms are used everyday to describe differences between things.
Why isn't there a good antonym for Nostalgia?
— ℭ𝔞𝔯𝔩𝔞 (@CarlaWasntHere) June 20, 2016
Student used "chordant" in a writing assignment as an antonym for "discordant" and honestly, I'm on board
— Ethan Hein (@ethanhein) May 4, 2020
Quiz yourself!
Which of the following words is an antonym of the word “begin?”
A. start
B. end
C. begun
D. beginning
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Browse