The definition of the word synonyms

A synonym is a word having the same or nearly the same meaning as another word in certain contexts. The adjective form is synonymous. Synonymy is the relationship that exists between words with closely related meanings. The word comes from the Greek meaning «same name.» Contrast with an antonym. A synonym for the term synonym is poecilonym.

Synonyms occur in a language in different contexts, such as formal and informal language, like you’d use in conversation vs. a business or academic paper. Also, some synonyms have slightly different connotations when they’re used, even though they might mean the same thing. For example, look at the differences between the terms for money: moolah, greenbacks, cash, currency, and revenues, which all occur in different contexts and levels of formality. Synonyms may also be nested inside one another, which is referred to as a kangaroo word.

Also, English has inherited and borrowed many words from other languages and kept some duplicates. (It’s also why some words have sound alike or don’t spell out as they sound, but those are additional topics.)

Synonyms saw a rise in the English language during the Norman conquest when the ruling class spoke Norman French and the lower classes continued to speak Old English. As a result, the Norman-originated word people exists alongside the Saxon-derived folk.

«The consequence of extensive borrowing from French, Latin, and Greek throughout the history of English is the creation of groups of synonyms occupying different registers (contexts within which they may be used): freedom and liberty; happiness and felicity; depth and profundity.»

— author Simon Horobin

«Insights into the relationships between such synonyms can be gleaned by comparing their uses in forming new words. The Old English word bird gives us a term of abuse, birdbrain, Latin avis is the source of more technical words such as aviation and aviary, while Greek ornith is the root of exclusively scientific formations, such as ornithology.»

— «How English Became English.» Oxford University Press, 2016

Can Two Words Be Truly Synonymous?

There is some debate as to whether two words can truly be synonymous. If they’re different words, they must mean something slightly different or have contexts where you’d use one or the other, the reasoning goes, which makes them only nearly synonymous but not truly the same thing.

Two words just can’t be completely interchangeable in all occurrences. When would two words have all of exactly the same meanings?

«The search for synonyms is a well-established classroom exercise, but it is as well to remember that lexemes rarely (if ever) have exactly the same meaning. … There are usually stylistic, regional, emotional, or other differences to consider. … Two lexemes might be synonymous in one sentence but different in another: range and selection are synonyms in What a nice __ of furnishings, but not in There’s the mountain __.

— David Crystal in «How Language Works.» Overlook, 2006

When a language does have two different words that mean the exact same thing, oftentimes one will stop being used, as it’s unnecessary, or it will take on a different meaning over time. And two synonyms used in different contexts, by definition, can’t be exactly the same.

At best, the theory relates, that the closest absolute synonymity can get is a technical word for something and a common name used in conversation for the same thing or dialect differences, such as between British English and American English (lorry vs. truck, boot vs. trunk.)

However, if we look at the definition of synonymous, that is, words meaning nearly the same thing rather than exactly the same thing in every situation, the theory that synonymity is impossible might just not hold up.

This aspect of English—having words that have different meanings in different contexts, as well as having doublets and triplets—is also a result of the language having inherited and borrowed so many words from different languages.

The doublets frail and fragile came to English from the same Latin root fragilis, but one came from French and one from Latin directly. The triplets real, royal, and regal came from Anglo-Norman, French, and Latin, notes Britannica.

Near-Synonyms 

Near-synonyms would be just that—words that are closely related as to just about be interchangeable but have different connotations, attitudes, or implications that you’d want to be aware of, making one word more appropriate for a context than another. Anything you can find in a thesaurus has a list of near-synonyms galore. For example, lie finds falsehood, fib, misrepresentation, and untruth, each with different nuances and shades of meaning that each can give to the context it’s used in.

It can be tricky when translating between languages, as you need to know the implications and connotations for the word in the original language and make sure you pick up those nuances in the destination language. 

The Lighter Side of Synonyms

Paul Dickson’s book «Intoxerated» claims, «The English language includes more synonyms for ‘drunk’ than for any other word.» Here are just a few of the 2,964 synonyms for drunk in his book:

• Blind
• Blitzed
• Blotto
• Bombed
• Buzzed
• Hammered
• High
• Inebriated
• Loaded
• Looped
• Merry
• Messed up
• Off the wagon
• Pickled
• Pifflicated
• Plastered
• Ripped
• Sloshed
• Smashed
• Snockered
• Soused
• Stewed
• Three sheets to the wind
• Tight
• Tipsy
• Trashed
• Wasted
• Wrecked
  —»Intoxerated: The Definitive Drinker’s Dictionary.» Melville House, 2012

Last Updated:
8 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the general meaning of «synonym». For other uses, see Synonym (disambiguation).

A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words begin, start, commence, and initiate are all synonyms of one another: they are synonymous. The standard test for synonymy is substitution: one form can be replaced by another in a sentence without changing its meaning. Words are considered synonymous in only one particular sense: for example, long and extended in the context long time or extended time are synonymous, but long cannot be used in the phrase extended family. Synonyms with exactly the same meaning share a seme or denotational sememe, whereas those with inexactly similar meanings share a broader denotational or connotational sememe and thus overlap within a semantic field. The former are sometimes called cognitive synonyms and the latter, near-synonyms,^[2] plesionyms^[3] or poecilonyms.^[4]

Lexicography[edit]

Some lexicographers claim that no synonyms have exactly the same meaning (in all contexts or social levels of language) because etymology, orthography, phonic qualities, connotations, ambiguous meanings, usage, and so on make them unique. Different words that are similar in meaning usually differ for a reason: feline is more formal than cat; long and extended are only synonyms in one usage and not in others (for example, a long arm is not the same as an extended arm). Synonyms are also a source of euphemisms.

Metonymy can sometimes be a form of synonymy: the White House is used as a synonym of the administration in referring to the U.S. executive branch under a specific president.^[5] Thus, a metonym is a type of synonym, and the word metonym is a hyponym of the word synonym.^{[citation needed]}

The analysis of synonymy, polysemy, hyponymy, and hypernymy is inherent to taxonomy and ontology in the information science senses of those terms.^[6] It has applications in pedagogy and machine learning, because they rely on word-sense disambiguation.^[7]

Etymology[edit]

The word is borrowed from Latin synōnymum, in turn borrowed from Ancient Greek synōnymon (συνώνυμον), composed of sýn (σύν ‘together, similar, alike’) and —ōnym— (-ωνυμ-), a form of onoma (ὄνομα ‘name’).^[8]

Sources[edit]

Synonyms are often some from the different strata making up a language. For example, in English, Norman French superstratum words and Old English substratum words continue to coexist.^[9] Thus, today we have synonyms like the Norman-derived people, liberty and archer, and the Saxon-derived folk, freedom and bowman. For more examples, see the list of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English.

Loanwords are another rich source of synonyms, often from the language of the dominant culture of a region. Thus, most European languages have borrowed from Latin and ancient Greek, especially for technical terms, but the native terms continue to be used in non-technical contexts. In East Asia, borrowings from Chinese in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese often double native terms. In Islamic cultures, Arabic and Persian are large sources of synonymous borrowings.

For example, in Turkish, kara and siyah both mean ‘black’, the former being a native Turkish word, and the latter being a borrowing from Persian. In Ottoman Turkish, there were often three synonyms: water can be su (Turkish), âb (Persian), or mâ (Arabic): «such a triad of synonyms exists in Ottoman for every meaning, without exception». As always with synonyms, there are nuances and shades of meaning or usage.^[10]

In English, similarly, we often have 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.^[11]

Many bound morphemes in English are borrowed from Latin and Greek and are synonyms for native words or morphemes: fish, pisci- (L), ichthy- (Gk).

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.^[12]

Uses[edit]

Synonyms often express a nuance of meaning or are used in different registers of speech or writing.

Different technical fields may appropriate synonyms for specific technical meanings.

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[edit]

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.^[13]

• 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.
• Antonyms are words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings. For example: hot ↔ cold, large ↔ small, thick ↔ thin, synonym ↔ antonym
• Hypernyms and hyponyms are 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[edit]

• -onym
• Synonym (taxonomy)
• Cognitive synonymy
• Elegant variation, the gratuitous use of a synonym in prose
• Synonym ring
• Synonymy in Japanese
• Thesauri and synonym dictionaries – Reference work for synonyms

References[edit]

External links[edit]

What is a synonym?

A synonym is a word that has the same meaning as another word. Synonyms can be two or more words, or even complete expressions, in the same language. While they may have other meanings, at least two of their meanings are similar or identical.

For example, the word “walk” has synonyms like “stroll,” “amble,” “saunter,” or “go.” – These words have an identical meaning to the word “walk.”

Near synonyms

Words that are similar but not identical are called near synonyms. Near synonyms move away from its original meaning of the original word. “Walk” does not quite mean the same thing as “skip,” “hike,” “trek,” “plod,” or “trudge.”

The nuance, or very slight difference, in words adds to mood and author’s purpose.

Think of the different moods these sentences evoke:

• The little boy skipped down the lane, licking his lollipop.

• The brave woman trekked across the mountain range carrying the medicine, a hero’s journey.

• Just before dawn, the old man trudged down the muddy road to his factory job.

• The loving couple sauntered hand in hand through the quiet park.

In each case, we could replace the verb with “walked,” but the sentence’s energy and mood would be lost.

Some words have opposite meanings of other words. These are called antonyms.

Synonyms examples

Examples of synonyms in English are easy to find in online resources, a printed thesaurus, or your own reader’s log. Almost every word has a synonym or near synonym.

These are examples for some of the most common words in the English language and the synonym list:

The synonyms list for each of the different words allows you to build unique sentences in your writing. These synonyms all have a similar meaning to the original word.

Do all words have synonyms?

Not every word or phrase has a synonym. Words that are simple and have obvious word origins are often called primitives, and they generally have synonyms. Technical and scientific words are often unique:

• Anemometer

• Gastroenterologist

• Pyroclastic

• Sphygmomanometer

Still, some primitives have no synonyms. You would be hard-pressed to replace monosyllabic words like “the,” and “be,” or polysyllabic words like “demonstrable” with synonyms.

How to find synonyms

The best tool for finding organized lists of synonyms is a thesaurus that lists words by synonyms, related words, and related concepts.

A dictionary gives the word’s meaning; a thesaurus lists synonyms and near synonyms for all forms of a word (verb, noun, phrase).

For example, the Merriam-Webster English dictionary might define “miserly” this way:

Of, relating to, or characteristic of a miser; marked by grasping meanness and penuriousness

A thesaurus will give these synonyms of “miserly:”

cheap, chintzy, close, closefisted, mean, mingy, parsimonious, penny-pinching, penurious, pinching, pinchpenny, spare, sparing, stingy, stinting, tight, tightfisted, uncharitable, and ungenerous

By reading both the definition and the synonyms, you have a much better understanding of the full meaning and nuance of “miserly:”

A great way to find synonyms is by keeping a reading log as you read a book. Write into the log any new word you encounter. Then look up the word’s meaning in a dictionary to understand the author’s intent.

Follow up by looking up synonyms for the word. You will broaden your grasp of language and the author’s purpose by doing this.

Multiple meanings and synonyms

Two words can have the same meaning, but one word can have multiple different meanings. Two words with the same spelling and punctuation but different meanings are called homonyms or homophones.

The English word “set” has the most meanings in English; at 430 distinct definitions.

Among those 430 meanings, some senses of “set” will have synonyms, and some will not.

First, decide which form of the word you seek a synonym for; noun, verb, adjective, phrase, etc. Then decide which meaning you intend:

• Set as a transitive verb: to place with great care or purpose (“She set down the antique vase.”) or to cause the start of (“The little boy set a fire in the field.”)

• Set as a noun: a number of things of the same kind or that belong together (“He wanted a model train set.”), or the background and designs of a stage show (“The set behind the actors was beautifully designed and painted.”)

• Set as an adjective: reluctant to change (“The old woman is set in her ways.”) or fixed by authority or agreement (“The royal wedding date is set.”)

For the particular word form and meaning (its connotation), you can then search for synonyms and near synonyms of only that meaning:

These example sentences show that using a synonym for “set” as a noun in a sentence where it is an adjective could lead to unintentional weirdness:

Thoroughly understand the use of the original word before deploying a synonym in your writing.

Why use synonyms in your writing?

Use synonyms in your writing to avoid repeating the same word too many times in passages unless the word is so basic it usually is not noticed. Such words as “said,” “be,” “a,” “the,” and “I” do not need synonyms because most readers move right through them.

Using synonyms keeps your text engaging and helps avoid monotony.

When using synonyms, be sure to match the connotation of your synonym to the writing style.

For example, flowery and emotionally charged words are not appropriate for academic papers or written instructions. Complex, cold or technical words are not appropriate for casual or friendly writing.

The word “man” could easily grow tiresome in a passage like this:

“The wiser man offered to help the younger man as they set about cleaning out the cheap old man’s shabby old house. The younger man took down the old man’s books from the shelves, while the huskier man boxed up the meager pots and pans.”

We can liven up the writing just by using synonyms for “man” like this:

“The wiser gentleman offered to help the brash youth as they set about cleaning out the miser’s shabby old house. The teen took down the recluse’s books from the shelves, while the huskier guy boxed up the meager pots and pans.”

Another way to liven up your writing is through the use of a metonym.

A metonym is a scientific name for a word, name, or expression that is more general or loosely related to something else. For example, “The Big Apple” is a metonym or alternative name for New York City.

Translations