Rather than just providing facts about each, employ antonym pairings to express the distinctions more vividly. For instance, when writing an article that compares different topics, employing a couple of antonyms might help you express what distinguishes them.Īssume you’re discussing the differences between living in cities and living in rural locations. They are as follows: ComparisonsĪntonyms are excellent for contrasting two distinct items and bringing attention to their distinctions. You can employ antonyms in three different ways. Putting contrasting words together, antonyms underline their distinctions and strengthen the single words. Some words with their synonyms and antonyms AbateĪntonym: Commendable, Praiseworthy AboundĪntonyms make your statements more efficient. On the contrary, large is a synonym for big since big and large signify the same thing.

This is because huge and little are polar opposites. Synonyms and antonyms have different implications whereas antonyms are words with opposite meanings, synonyms share the same meaning.

bad and good).Ī word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language, for example shut is a synonym of close.Īntonyms are connected to synonyms, which are words with the same meaning. Antonym (Definition)Ī word opposite in meaning to another (e.g. An antonym of night, for example, is the day, while an antonym of off is on. Words with opposing meanings are known as antonyms. Similarly girls can exist without their complimentary opposites, boys.Antonym derives from the word antonymy, a precise grammar term describing words with conflicting meanings. They can independently exist without each other, such as a daughter is not the complimentary opposite of a son in the family. Complimentary Antonyms – Complimentary antonyms use word pairs that are absolute opposites.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.Healthy, vigorous, fit, strong / sick, unwell, ill, ailing.Happy, pleased, joyful, ecstatic / sad, gloomy, dejected, miserable.

Smart, clever, canny, bright / stupid, dim, obtuse, foolish, unwise.

Big, bulky, full-size, huge / petite, slight, and little.

For instance, the words “big” and “little” are opposite however, they can use a variety of other words with opposite meanings such as:

Graded Antonyms – Graded antonyms use words having variations between two opposites.

There are three types of antonym, which are:

What does antonym means