Word pairs that are opposite

It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled — Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of red states and blue states; we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

The antonyms that are included in the excerpt are: young/old, rich/poor, Democrat/Republican, black/white, gay/straight, and disabled/not disabled.

A ← → B

• Adjective: easy/hard, wet/dry, hot/cold

• Nouns: hero/villain, freedom/slavery

• Verbs: answer/ask, discourage/encourage

• Adverbs: now/then, loudly/softly

• Propositions: on/off, above/below

Antonymy can also be found in idioms:

• Although they are twins, their personalities are night and day.

• Things don’t always go as you want. You have to learn to take the bad with the good.

Imagine you’re looking at a room thermometer. If the indicator is at the bottom of the thermometer, it tells you that the room is cold. If it is at the top, the room is hot. However, the thermometer can also indicate warm temperature when the indicator is in the middle.

Remember when you have to answer true or false questions on tests? This is an example of a complementary antonym. There are only two options, either true or false. There is no half-true or half-false.

Antonymy in Literature

In Literature, antonymy is often used as a device. Antonymy allows writers to juxtapose words to suggest irony or satire, or to make some words more prominent than others.¹ Antonymy is used in a number of ways in Literature:

Antithesis

This is a juxtaposition of two logically opposed elements.

To err is human to forgive is divine — Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1711).

The err and forgive are relational/converse antonyms. An error needs to exist first for it to be forgiven. The two contrasting words also juxtapose human and divine (coming from or connected with God or a god — Oxford English Learner). The sentence then means ‘it is normal for humans to make mistakes but to forgive is difficult’.

This is a contradictory statement that, after closer inspection, is found to be true.

We die and rise the same, — John Donne, The Canonization (1633)

This refers to meaning the opposite of what is said.

The apparent statement or event is undermined by another context to give a different meaning. Take Percy Shelley’s Ozymandias (1818):

In this poem, the antonymy/irony relationship is described by contrasting the past and present. It is reflected by the magnificent power-imagery used about Ozymandias (king of kings; ye Mighty and despair) which sometime in the future is turned into its opposite. All that is left of the grandeur described on the plinth is desolation (half sunk; stamped on these lifeless things).

It is therefore ironic that the statue, which was meant to show his everlasting power, is decapitated and no longer represents his great accomplishments. Instead, it is sunken in the desert, partially covered with sand.

Here are some side-by-side comparisons of the two terms using the same words:

¹Nünning, V., & Nünning, A, An Introduction to the Study of English and American Literature, (2004).

Получи верный ответ на вопрос 🏆 «Find the pairs of words with the opposite meaning. fast old strong on the bed tall expensive early big hate come in late weak come out …» по предмету 📕 Английский язык, используя встроенную систему поиска. Наша обширная база готовых ответов поможет тебе получить необходимые сведения!

Найти готовые ответы

Definition of Antonym

An antonym is a semantic term for words that have opposite meanings or definitions. To simply put it, an antonym is an opposite of another word. The term “antonym” has been derived from a Greek word antonumia, which means counter name.

It is, in fact, a sense relation or binary relationship between words that have opposite or contradictory meanings. For instance, in the sentence, “You forget what you want to Remember and you Remember what you want to forget” (The Road, by Cormac McCarthy), the underlined words “forget” and “remember” are opposites to one another. In other words, they are antonyms of one another.

Difference Between Antonym and Synonym

Antonyms are pairs of words that have opposite meanings, such as: night-day, bright-dull, and wet-dry. Synonyms, on the other hand, are a group of words having similar meanings. Most words have synonyms. Verbs, nouns, prepositions, adjectives, and adverbs have synonyms, provided they belong to the same parts of speech.

Types of Antonym

There are three types of antonym, which are:

1. Graded Antonyms – Graded antonyms use words having variations between two opposites. For instance, the words “big” and “little” are opposite; however, they can use a variety of other words with opposite meanings such as:
   1. Big, bulky, full-size, huge / petite, slight, and little
   2. Smart, clever, canny, bright / stupid, dim, obtuse, foolish, unwise
   3. Happy, pleased, joyful, ecstatic / sad, gloomy, dejected, miserable
   4. Healthy, vigorous, fit, strong / sick, unwell, ill, ailing
2. Relational or Converse Antonyms – Relational antonyms use word pairs having a close relationship in which each word cannot exist without the other, or one word has only a single relational opposite. For example:
   1. Front-back
   2. Open-close
   3. Husband-wife
   4. Hello-goodbye
3. Complimentary Antonyms – Complimentary antonyms use word pairs that are absolute opposites. They can independently exist without each other, such as a daughter is not the complimentary opposite of a son in the family. Similarly girls can exist without their complimentary opposites, boys. Some of these are given below:
   1. True-false
   2. Dead-alive
   3. Male-female
   4. On-off
   5. Daughter-son
   6. Yes-no

Examples of Antonyms in Literature

Example #1: The Plain Man and His Wife (by Arnold Bennett)

“If you ask me whom I mean by the plain man, my reply is that I mean almost every man. I mean you. I certainly mean me. I mean… the successful and the unsuccessful, the idle and the diligent, the luxurious and the austere.”

This is a good example of graded antonyms, as “successful” is opposite to “unsuccessful,” while “idle” is opposite to “diligent,” and “luxurious” is exactly opposite to “austere.”

Example #2: The World As I See It (by Albert Einstein)

“Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.”

The above example has used the graded antonyms “inner” and “outer,” “give” and “received,” and complimentary antonyms “living” and “dead.”

Example #3: Hamlet (by William Shakespeare)

“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the Night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

In this excerpt, Shakespeare has used graded antonyms “night” and “day,” and absolute or complimentary antonyms “living” and “dead.”

Example #4: A Tale of Two Cities (by Charles Dickens)

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”

Dickens has beautifully used antonyms in this passage. “Best” is opposite to “worst,” “wisdom” is opposite to “foolishness,” and likewise “belief” and “incredulity,” “light” and “darkness,” “hope” and “despair” are all graded antonyms.

Function of Antonym

The function of antonyms, in both speech and writing, is important because they highlight or emphasize the main idea of a text or speech. In literature, antonyms are used in different literary devices such as in synecdoche and paradox. These devices make some features of a character, or some quality in a person prominent. Antonyms also are helpful tools in narration, argumentation, description, and explanation. Antonyms also play an important role in language acquisition.