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Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms

August 4, 2009 by Roy Johnson

lists of words, their alternatives, and their opposites

This Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms should appeal to a number of different users — editors, poets, crossword fans, and word puzzle solvers in general. It’s an easy-to-use source of over 150,000 alternative and opposite words to improve your wordpower and communication skills, and make your English more interesting and original. In fact it’s two books in one, because the dictionary is followed by a huge lexicon of what are termed ‘hard words’.

Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms These are unusual and obscure words you might wish to use in unusual circumstances, running from abattis (a defence made of felled trees with the boughs pointing outwards) to zymurgy (the branch of applied chemistry dealing with the use of fermentation in brewing). The main part of the book offers each headword entry followed by synonyms which are listed alphabetically, and antonyms are placed at the end of entries where appropriate. There are examples to show how words of less obvious senses are used, and markers such as ‘informal’, ‘derogatory’, and ‘obsolete’ highlight the usage style.

For instance, let’s say you wanted to avoid repeating the word hard in a piece of writing. You look up the word and choose from a list of alternatives – and they are arranged in groups according to the sense in which the word is being used:

hard adj 1 adamantine, compact, compressed, dense, firm, flinty, frozen, hardened, impenetrable, impervious, inflexible, rigid, rocky, solid, solidified, steely, stiff, stony, unbreakable, unyielding. 2 hard labour. arduous, back-breaking, exhausting, fatiguing, formidable, gruelling, harsh, heavy, laborious, onerous, rigorous, severe, stiff, strenuous, taxing, tiring, tough, uphill, wearying. 3 a hard problem. baffling, complex, complicated, confusing, difficult, enigmatic, insoluble, intricate, involved, knotty, perplexing, puzzling, tangled, inf thorny. 4 a hard heart. callous, cold, cruel inf hard-boiled, hard-hearted, harsh, heartless, hostile, inflexible, intolerant, merciless, obdurate, pitiless, ruthless, severe, stern, strict, unbending, unfeeling, unfriendly, unkind. 5 a hard blow. forceful, heavy, powerful, strong, violent. 6 hard times. austere, bad, calamitous, disagreeable, distressing, grim, intolerable, painful, unhappy, unpleasant. 7 a hard worker. assiduous, conscientious, devoted, indefatigable, industrious, keen, persistent, unflagging, untiring, zealous. Opp EASY, SOFT. hard-headed > BUSINESSLIKE. hard-hearted > CRUEL. hard up > POOR. hard-wearing > DURABLE.

It has to be said that the synonyms fare better than the antonyms, and of course there are plenty of terms for which there are no antonyms – bicycle for instance. Plenty of synonyms – bike, cycle, two-wheeler – and so on, but no anti-bicycle.

This could also be very useful for crossword addicts in solving those clues which are posed in finding one word which means the same as another – as in ‘adamantine (4)’ = hard.

© Roy Johnson 2007

Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms   Buy the book at Amazon US


Alan Spooner (ed), Oxford Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd edition 2007, pp.528, ISBN: 0199210659


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Filed Under: Dictionaries Tagged With: Antonyms, Dictionaries, English language, Language, Reference, Synonyms

Roget’s Thesaurus

July 16, 2009 by Roy Johnson

best-selling reference for word alternatives and opposites

Roget’s Thesaurus is a classic and much-loved compilation of synonyms and antonyms. It was first published in the middle of the nineteenth century, and although the arrangement of its entries has been modified from time to time, it has remained in print ever since. When do you need a thesaurus? Basically, most people use them to find alternatives for words which they wish to avoid repeating. And they are very popular with fans of crossword puzzles.

Roget's Thesaurus If you’ve already shown off by using the word ‘benevolence’, you look up the term and discover ‘philanthropy’, ‘generosity’, ‘benignity’, ‘charity’, and ‘unselfishness’ as synonyms (same or near-same meaning). The headword is also explored in its form as a noun, verb, adverb, and adjective. Thesauri (that’s the plural) also include antonyms (opposite meaning) and Roget has always given examples of expressions in common usage.

So in this case, it includes ‘good Samaritan’ and clichés such as ‘heart in the right place’ and ‘milk of human kindness’. Roget’s is a thesaurus which you dip into for some nugget of information, and stay there tasting and sampling for much longer than you had intended.

The book has always been a big favourite with crossword puzzle fans, because the entries throw up alternative word possibilities of the kind which are often locked in their clues.

It’s a treasure trove of verbal information (sorry – another cliché) which is why the original compiler’s name has always been retained in the title as a guarantee of value. Make sure you get the latest edition, because lots of quotations have been added.

© Roy Johnson 2004

Roget's Thesaurus   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Roget's Thesaurus   Buy the book at Amazon US


Roget’s Thesaurus, London: Penguin, 2004, pp.848, ISBN: 0140515038


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Filed Under: Dictionaries Tagged With: Antonyms, Dictionaries, Language, Reference, Roget's Thesaurus, Synonyms

Synonyms – how to understand them

September 14, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Synonyms – definition

synonyms In a very general sense, synonyms are different words which have the same meaning.


Examples
Word Synonym
kingly royal
pavement sidewalk
youth youngster
strong powerful

Use

redbtn Strictly speaking, such words are rarely [if ever] quite identical to each other.

redbtn There are bound to be semantic, stylistic, regional, or other differences between them.

redbtn It is often said that if two words do have exactly the same meaning, one of them is likely to disappear.

redbtn Moreover, two words might be synonymous in one statement, and different in another.

redbtn NB! Synonyms offer us variety in our expression.

redbtn Synonyms are usually referred to by linguists as ‘near synonyms’, because they argue that no two words mean exactly the same. If they did, one would probably disappear from use.

redbtn English is a language which has ‘borrowed’ from many varied sources during the course of its history. This has created a wide and heterogeneous lexicon. For example, terms which were originally French currently coexist with their Anglo-saxon equivalents:

French Anglo-Saxon
petite small
tour trip
chauffeur driver
aperitif drink
promenade front (as in sea-front)
escritoire desk

redbtn The French term usually carries a prestige value over that of the English equivalent, which is often seen as basic and even crass. This is because of the history of French dominance over the English as a result of the Norman Conquest.

redbtn During the period of French rule after 1066, a state of diglossia existed throughout the south of England. Diglossia means that two languages are used by one society, but applied to two discrete functions. French was used for matters of church and state, whereas English was used by the common people for personal and family discourse.

redbtn The legacy of this diglossia is that we have a multitude of synonyms or near-synonyms at our disposal.

redbtn However, it is usually preferable to state the same idea in a variety of styles, rather than to repeat one definitive term for one specific phenomenon.

redbtn In Shakespeare’s King Lear, the king confesses to being a ‘foolish fond old man’. The use of two near synonyms has a poetic and dramatic effect, as one adjective has the effect of intensifying the other.

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© Roy Johnson 2004


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