Synonym
A synonym is a
Lexicography
Some
The analysis of synonymy,
Etymology
The word is borrowed from
Sources
Synonyms are often from the different
For example, in
In English, similarly, there often exist Latin (L) and Greek (Gk) terms synonymous with Germanic ones: thought, notion (L), idea (Gk); ring, circle (L), cycle (Gk). English often uses the Germanic term only as a noun, but has Latin and Greek adjectives: hand, manual (L), chiral (Gk); heat, thermal (L), caloric (Gk). Sometimes the Germanic term has become rare, or restricted to special meanings: tide, time/temporal, chronic.[13]
Many
Another source of synonyms is coinages, which may be motivated by linguistic purism. Thus, the English word foreword was coined to replace the Romance preface. In Turkish, okul was coined to replace the Arabic-derived mektep and mederese, but those words continue to be used in some contexts.[14]
Uses
Synonyms often express a nuance of meaning or are used in different registers of speech or writing.
Various technical domains may employ synonyms to convey precise technical nuances.
Some writers avoid repeating the same word in close proximity, and prefer to use synonyms: this is called elegant variation. Many modern style guides criticize this.
Examples
Synonyms can be any part of speech, as long as both words belong to the same part of speech. Examples:
- noun: drink and beverage
- verb: buy and purchase
- adjective: big and large
- adverb: quickly and speedily
- preposition: on and upon
Synonyms are defined with respect to certain senses of words: pupil as the aperture in the iris of the eye is not synonymous with student. Similarly, he expired means the same as he died, yet my passport has expired cannot be replaced by my passport has died.
A thesaurus or synonym dictionary lists similar or related words; these are often, but not always, synonyms.[15]
- The word poecilonym is a rare synonym of the word synonym. It is not entered in most major dictionaries and is a curiosity or piece of trivia for being an autological word because of its meta quality as a synonym of synonym.
- Antonymsare words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings. For example: hot ↔ cold, large ↔ small, thick ↔ thin, synonym ↔ antonym
- Hypernyms and hyponymsare words that refer to, respectively, a general category and a specific instance of that category. For example, vehicle is a hypernym of car, and car is a hyponym of vehicle.
- Homophones are words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings. For example, witch and which are homophones in most accents (because they are pronounced the same).
- Homographs are words that have the same spelling but different meanings. For example, one can record a song or keep a record of documents.
- Homonyms are words that have the same pronunciation and spelling but different meanings. For example, rose (a type of flower) and rose (past tense of rise) are homonyms.
See also
- -onym
- Cognitive synonymy
- Elegant variation, the gratuitous use of a synonym in prose
- Semantic equivalence (linguistics)
- Synonym (taxonomy)
- Synonymy in Japanese
- Synonym ring
- Thesauri and synonym dictionaries – Reference work for synonyms
References
- ^ K.4375
- ^ "Synonym | Definition, Meaning, & Examples". Britannica. 27 February 2024.
- ^ Stanojević, Maja (2009), "Cognitive synonymy: a general overview" (PDF), Facta Universitatis, Linguistics and Literature Series, 7 (2): 193–200.
- ^ DiMarco, Chrysanne, and Graeme Hirst. "Usage notes as the basis for a representation of near-synonymy for lexical choice." Proceedings of 9th annual conference of the University of Waterloo Centre for the New Oxford English Dictionary and Text Research. 1993.
- ^ Grambs, David. The Endangered English Dictionary: Bodacious Words Your Dictionary Forgot. WW Norton & Company, 1997.
- ^ "In the strictest sense, synonymous words scarcely exist". Standard Dictionary (Funk & Wagnalls, 1894), entry for synonyms or synonymous, as quoted in Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms: A Dictionary of Discriminated Synonyms with Antonyms and Analogous and Contrasted Words (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam (Merriam-Webster ser.), [4th ed.] 1973 (SBN 0-87779-141-4)), p. 19a (Survey of the History of English Synonymy, in Introductory Matter); accord, Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms, id., pp. 23a–25a, passim (Synonym: Analysis and Definition (titular word & colon italicized in original & subtitle not), in Introductory Matter).
- ^ "World Architecture Images – The White House". essential-architecture.com. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
- ^ Hirst, Graeme. "Ontology and the lexicon." Handbook on ontologies. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2009. 269-292.
- ISBN 978-1-905593-44-6.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1st edition, 1919, s.v.
- ^ Bradley, Henry (1922). The Making of English. Macmillan and Company, Limited.
- ^ Ziya Gökalp, The Principles of Turkism, 1968, p. 78
- ISBN 0226079376
- ISBN 0198238568, p. 44, 70, 117
- ^ "Synonym dictionary words and phrases". www.allacronyms.com. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
External links
The dictionary definition of synonym at Wiktionary