Synonyms, Antonyms and hyponym

Synonyms and Antonymns

Imagine for a moment how dull the world would be if there were only one word to voice a particular thought. If every person, place, or object could only be expressed with the same word over and over again then reading, writing, and speaking would be extremely boring. Luckily, we have synonyms and antonyms to add spice and flavor to our communication skills.

What Are Synonyms?

Synonyms are words that have the same or very similar meaning. All words can have a synonym. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions can have a synonym as long as both words are the same part of speech.

Examples of Synonyms

Adjectives: beautiful, lovely, gorgeous, stunning, striking

Nouns: House, home, dwelling, residence, abode, quarters

Verbs: jump, bound, leap, hop, skip

Prepositions: in, inside, within

That’s just a very short list. Here are more examples for you:

Small, little, mini, short, tiny, petite, fine

Soft, silky, downy, weak, limp, soggy

Weak, wimpy, faint, flimsy

Hold, cling, clench, grasp, wait, grip

Run, dash, sprint,

Fast, prompt, quick

Smart, bright, intelligent, brilliant

Shy, bashful, introverted, quiet, withdrawn

Kind, considerate, gracious, sweet, thoughtful

Lazy, idle, lethargic, lackadaisical

Mean, bad-tempered, difficult, unpleasant, unfriendly

Friendly, sociable, outgoing, warm, extroverted

Rich, wealthy, well-to-do, affluent, well-off

The list could go on and on but the important point to consider is that all of the above synonyms could be interchanged in a sentence. However, when you do replace a word with its synonym, you have to pay close attention to the context so that the synonym will convey the same meaning. For Example:

My driver’s license has expired.

You couldn’t replace the word expired with the word die even though the two are synonyms. It wouldn’t make sense. A driver’s license can’t die. So, you need to keep in mind that not every synonym of the word you want to replace will be a good choice.

Every writer can enhance their writing skills by using a variety of words in their written work. We’ve seen how this can be accomplished with synonyms, now let’s take a look at what we can do with antonyms.

What are Antonyms?

The root words for the word 'antonym' are the words 'anti,' meaning 'against' or 'opposite,' and 'onym,' meaning 'name.'

Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings. For example, the antonym of long is short. Often words will have more than one antonym but as with synonyms it depends on the context. For instance, the word warm could have the antonym cool or chilly. In order to choose the correct antonym, you have to look at all the meanings and how the word is used. Cool can mean stylish as well as chilly so the word cool may not be the best choice.

Why Are Antonyms Important?

Oddly enough, to better understand the meaning of a word, we can take a look at its antonym, or opposite meaning. For instance, take the word 'morose.' The definition of 'morose' is 'gloomily or sullenly ill-humored.' Sometimes, even reading a dictionary definition is not enough to give us a complete understanding of a word. Most dictionaries provide synonyms and antonyms, as well.

For instance, here are a few listed synonyms for the word 'morose:' 'moody,' 'sour,' 'sulky.' Also, here are a few antonyms: 'cheerful' and 'optimistic.' Now we know that the opposite of 'morose' is cheerful and even optimistic! Taking a look at both the synonyms and antonyms really provides us with a clearer definition.

Using Antonyms in Writing

Sometimes, we get stuck when trying to choose the best word in a sentence, or we tend to use the same words too often. For instance, we might be looking for a word that means the opposite of 'courageous,' but we want to choose a different word than 'scared.' Let's take on the antonym challenge and see if we can find a better word!

When we look up the word 'courageous' and scroll down to the list of antonyms, we see words like: 'chickenhearted,' 'cowardly,' and 'gutless.' These words are more vivid than the word 'scared,' and by using

Types of Antonyms

Antonyms fall within the three categories: graded antonyms, relational antonyms, and complementary antonyms.

Graded antonyms are word pairs that have variations between the two opposites. For example, big and little are antonyms but there are a lot of changes before you get to the opposite meaning. Like this:

Big, huge, bulky, full-size, slight, petite, little

Other examples are:

Happy – sad

Healthy – sick

Smart – stupid

Relational antonyms are pairs that have a relationship. Each word wouldn’t exist without the other. There can’t be a parent without a child or it’s either all or nothing. Other examples include:

Open – close

Husband – wife

Front – back

Hello – goodbye

Complimentary antonyms are word pairs that have no degree of meaning. There are only two opposite possibilities.

Dead- alive

True – false

Male- female

Daughter – son

On – off

Examples of antonyms that were made by adding the prefix “un” are:

    Likely and unlikely

    Able and unable

    Fortunate and unfortunate

    Forgiving and unforgiving

By adding the prefix “non” you can make these pairs:

    Entity and nonentity

    Conformist and nonconformist

    Payment and nonpayment

    Combatant and noncombatant

Lastly, adding the prefix “in” can make the following pairs:

    Tolerant and intolerant

    Decent and indecent

    Discreet and indiscreet

    Excusable and inexcusable

Hyponym

Hyponymy is a sense relation in semantics that serves to relate word-concepts in a hierarchical fashion. Examples are:

 

  apple:fruit

    car:vehicle

    stool:furntiture

    cow:animal

The more specific concept is known as the hyponym, and the more general concept is known as the hypernym or superordinate. Apple is the hyponym of fruit and fruit is the superordinate of Apple.

Typically in semantics we can view things from two points of view, either from the Extensional viewpoint (relating the meanings of words to the outside world) or from the Intensional viewpoint, (relating word meaning to mental concepts). From an extensional view, the superordinate is the class of items that includes the class of hyponyms. If one is the subset of the other, then they are in a hyponymical relation. By this thinking, if the class of flowers contains the class of daisies then they are in the superordinate-hyponym relation. (true)

From the intensional view, the hyponym is more a more detailed mental concept than that of the superordinate. The mental concept flower is rather vague, perhaps only containing the fact that it is a plant, containing usually small, colorful petals. The concept for daisy is much more detailed, however, containing the specific colors, height, season of appearance, etc.