Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings. Synonyms are words that have the same or nearly the same meaning. Homonyms are words that are pronounced the same, and are sometimes spelled the same, but have different meanings.

Antonym Examples

• Achieve – Fail

• Idle – Active

• Afraid – Confident

• Ancient – Modern

• Arrive – Depart

• Arrogant – Humble

• Ascend – Descend

• Attack – Defend

• Blunt – Sharp

• Brave – Cowardly

• Cautious – Careless

• Complex – Simple

• Compliment – Insult

• Crazy – Sane

• Crooked – Straight

• Decrease – Increase

• Demand – Supply

• Destroy – Create

• Divide – Unite

• Drunk – Sober

• Expand – Contract

• Freeze - Boil

• Full – Empty

• Generous – Stingy

• Giant – Dwarf

• Gloomy – Cheerful

• Guilty – Innocent

• Hire – Fire

• Include – Exclude

• Individual – Group

• Innocent – Guilty

• Knowledge – Ignorance

• Liquid – Solid

• Lonely – Crowded

• Major – Minor

• Marvelous – Terrible

• Mature – Immature

• Maximum - Minimum

• Noisy – Quiet

• Optimist - Pessimist

• Ordinary – Extraordinary

• Partial – Complete

• Passive – Active

• Permanent – Unstable

• Plentiful – Sparse

• Positive – Negative

• Powerful – Weak

• Praise – Criticism

• Private – Public

• Problem – Solution

• Professional – Amateur

• Profit – Loss

• Quality – Inferiority

• Random – Specific

• Rigid – Flexible

• Segregate – Integrate

• Shame – Honor

• Simple - Complicated

• Single – Married

• Stiff – Flexible

• Strength – Weakness

• Sturdy – Weak

• Sunny - Cloudy

• Superb – Inferior

• Temporary – Permanent

• Timid – Bold

• Toward – Away

• Tragic – Comic

• Transparent - Opaque

• Triumph – Defeat

• Union – Separation

• Unique – Common

• Upset – Relaxed

• Urge – Deter

• Vacant – Occupied

• Vague – Definite

• Vertical – Horizontal

• Villain – Hero

• Visible - Invisible

• Wax - Wane

• Wealth – Poverty

Synonyms and Antonyms

A synonym is a word that means the same, or almost the same, as another word. Synonyms and antonyms are used by teachers, students, writers, editors, poets, and songwriters.

Working with Antonyms

Sometimes you need to take two steps to enlarge your findings when doing antonym research:

Step 1: Search for the antonyms for a word.

Here is an example of antonyms for the word "good" from Darrionerininominque Preparatory

• bad, badly, badness, evil, evilness, ill, malevolent, malicious, poorly, wicked 

Step 2: Search for synonyms of the antonyms identified in step one.

If you take the first antonym listed, “bad,” and search for synonyms, you would be shown 73 synonyms for “bad.” That would give you a lot of antonyms to choose from when looking for that perfect antonym for good, including words such as: awful, dreadful, hard, hopeless, inferior, lousy, painful, rotten, severe, stale, terrible, and tough. 

Categories of Antonyms

There are three categories of antonyms:

• Graded antonyms - deal with levels of the meaning of the words, like if something is not “good”, is may still not be “bad.” There is a scale involved with some words, and besides good and bad there can be average, fair, excellent, terrible, poor, or satisfactory.

• Complementary antonyms - have a relationship where there is no middle ground. There are only two possibilities, either one or the other.

• Relational antonyms - are sometimes considered a subcategory of complementary antonyms. With these pairs, for there to be a relationship, both must exist.

The chart below shows examples of all three categories of antonyms.

 

 

Adding a Prefix

Sometimes, an antonym can be easily made by adding a prefix.

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

If you want to find the perfect antonym, a thesaurus or antonym dictionary can be very helpful. These reference sources will give definitions and parts of speech, has lists of antonyms, synonyms, and sometimes will even show similar sounding words, homophones, rhymes, and will show examples from literature.

 

Synonym Examples

• Annihilation, destruction, carnage, extinction

• Benefit, profit, revenue, yield

• Cunning, keen, sharp, slick

• Destitute, poor, bankrupt, impoverished

• Deterioration, pollution, defilement, adulteration

• Enormous, huge, gigantic, massive

• Fertile, fruitful, abundant, productive

• House, dwelling, abode, domicile

• Intelligent, clever, brilliant, knowledgeable

• Loyal, faithful, ardent, devoted

• Organization, institution, management

• Partner, associate, colleague, companion

• Polite, courteous, cordial, gracious

• Risky, dangerous, perilous, treacherous

• Sleepy, drowsy, listless, sluggish

• Vacant, empty, deserted, uninhabited

 

 

Synonyms are words that are similar or have a related meaning, to another word. They can be lifesavers when you want to avoid repeating the same word over and over. Also, sometimes the word you have in mind might not be the most appropriate word, which is why finding the right synonym can come in handy. Luckily, we do not have to go searching the recesses of our mind to come up with a list of synonyms; there are numerous online tools providing synonym examples, including the thesaurus right here at Darrionerininominque Preparatory.

Choosing a Synonym

There is a certain skill involved in choosing the most appropriate synonym, as not all are created equal. It is important to consider the connotation of the word because some synonyms can inject a different meaning than the one intended.

For example, one synonym of sad is "gloomy" however, this word carries quite a negative connotation. Depending on the circumstance you can use it, but in this instance, if you just want to say that someone is "down," then another synonym such as "blue" or "unhappy" would be more applicable.

Synonym examples

Here is a list of adjectives and their synonyms that are commonly used to describe people.

• Beautiful: Attractive, Pretty, Lovely, Stunning

• Fair: Just, Objective, Impartial, Unbiased

• Funny: Humorous, Comical, Hilarious, Hysterical

• Happy: Content, Joyful, Mirthful, Upbeat

• Hardworking: Diligent, Determined, Industrious, Enterprising

• Honest: Honorable, Fair, Sincere, Trustworthy

• Intelligent: Smart, Bright, Brilliant, Sharp

• Introverted: Shy, Bashful, Quiet, Withdrawn

• Kind: Thoughtful, Considerate, Amiable, Gracious

• Lazy: Idle, Lackadaisical, Lethargic, Indolent

• Mean: Unfriendly, Unpleasant, Bad-tempered, Difficult

• Outgoing: Friendly, Sociable, Warm, Extroverted

• Rich: Affluent, Wealthy, Well-off, Well-to-do

• Strong: Stable, Secure, Solid, Tough

• Unhappy: Sad, Depressed, Melancholy, Miserable

• Lucky: Auspicious, Fortunate

• Positive: Optimistic, Cheerful, Starry-eyed, Sanguine

• Bossy: Controlling, Tyrannical

 

 

SYNONYM TEST - View & Download PDF

Here are some miscellaneous words and their synonyms:

• Baffle: confuse, deceive

• Hypocrisy: duplicity, falseness

• Pacify: appease, placate

• Recalcitrant: obstinate, stubborn

• Turbulent: disordered, violent

• Valid: authorized, legitimate

• Old: antiquated, ancient, obsolete, extinct, past, pre-historic, venerable, aged

• True: genuine, reliable, factual, accurate, precise, correct, valid, real

• Important: required, substantial, vital, essential, primary, significant, requisite, critical

• Weak: frail, anemic, feeble, infirm, languid, sluggish, puny, fragile

 

These are just a few examples of synonyms but hopefully, you can see that working with synonyms can make your writing more varied and fun and help you expand your vocabulary.

 

Homonym Examples

• Aid - Aide

• Affect - Effect

• Aisle - I’ll - Isle

• Aloud - Allowed

• Altar - Alter

• Ark - Arc

• Ball - Bawl

• Base - Bass

• Beech - Beach

• Birth - Berth

• Bore - Boar

• Byte - Bite

• Blew - Blue

• Bow - Bough

• Boy - Buoy

• Bread - Bred

• Browse - Brows

• Cell - Sell

• Cereal - Serial

• Chilly - Chili - Chile

• Chord - Cord

• Complement - Compliment

• Counsel - Council

• Creak - Creek

• Crews - Cruise

• Dual - Duel

• Fair - Fare

• Fairy - Ferry

• Feat - Feet

• Fir - Fur

• Flea - Flee

• Gorilla - Guerrilla

• Grease - Greece

• Groan - Grown

• Hall - Haul

• Halve - Have

• Holey - Holy - Wholly

• Incite - Insight

• Jeans - Genes

• Knead - Need

• Knight - Night

• Lessen - Lesson

• Links - Lynx

• Loan - Lone

• Oral - Aural

• Ought - Aught

• Oar - Or - Ore

• Overdo - Overdue

• Peak - Peek

• Phase - Faze

• Pole - Poll

• Pray - Prey

• Principal - Principle

• Raze - Raise

• Real - ReeL

• Ring - Wring

• Role - Roll

• Sew - So - Sow

• Site - Sight - Cite

• Soar - Sore

• Sole - Soul

• Toe - Tow

• Vary - Very

• Wail - Whale

• Wait - Weight

• We - Wee

• Weather - Whether

• Which - Witch

• Whose - Who’s

Homonyms are two words that are spelled the same and sound the same but have different meanings. The word “homonym” comes from the prefix “homo,” which means the same, and the suffix “-nym,” which means name. Therefore, a homonym is a word that has the same name as another word, meaning that the two words look and sound exactly alike.

A simple example of a homonym is the word “pen.” This can mean both a holding area for animals and a writing instrument. Another example is “book,” which can mean something to read or the act of making a reservation. In both cases, the sound and spelling are the same, and only the definition changes.

 

 

Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms: What’s the Difference?

These three terms are often confused, thanks to their identical prefixes. It’s the suffix that makes all the difference in this case, though. Let’s take a closer look:

Homophones

Homophones are words that sound alike, thanks to that all-important suffix “-phone,” which means sound. Homophones have the same sound but different meaning, and they are often spelled differently. For example, consider the word “plate” and “plait.” A plate is a dish for eating, but a plait is a special knot or twist, usually indicating something braided, like hair or rope. Homophones may or may not be spelled the same because the definition is really about the sound. 
Other examples:

• mat/matte

• two/too

Homographs

Homographs are words that are spelled the same, as indicated by the suffix “-graph,” which means writing. Homographs have the same spelling but different meanings. For example, the words “tear” and “tear.” A tear can mean drops of water from the eyes; on the other hand, it can mean to rip paper into pieces. Either way, the spelling is the same. Homographs may or may not have different pronunciations because the definition is about the spelling and not the sound. 
Other examples:

• bow (to bend at the waste)/bow (a piece of archery equipment)

• entrance (to hold one’s attention)/entrance (a doorway)

Homonyms

Homonyms have characteristics of both homophones and homographs. As we mentioned, they are words that are spelled alike (like homographs) and sound alike (like homophones). Homonyms are a special case, and they are best thought of as the center portion of a Venn diagram that shows the overlap between homophones in one-half and homographs in the other. 
Other examples:

• bear (an animal)/bear (to withstand or hold up)

• can (a metal container)/can (able to)

More Examples of Homonyms

Here are a few more examples of homonym pairs:

• address (to speak to)/address (location)

• air (oxygen)/air (a lilting tune)

• band (a musical group)/band (a ring)

• bark (a tree’s out layer)/bark (the sound a dog makes)

• current (up to date)/current (flow of water)

• die (to cease living)/die (a cube marked with numbers one through six)

• fair (equitable)/fair (beautiful)

• kind (type)/kind (caring)

• lie (to recline)/lie (to tell a falsehood)

• match (to pair like items)/match (a stick for making a flame)

• mean (average)/mean (not nice)

• Pole (a person from Poland)/pole (a piece of metal that holds a flag)

• pound (unit of weight)/pound (to beat)

• ream (a pile of paper)/ream (to juice a citrus fruit)

• rose (to have gotten up)/rose (a flower)

• spring (a season)/spring (coiled metal)

• tender (gentle)/tender (to pay money)

• tire (to grow fatigued)/tire (part of a wheel)

The Trouble With Homonyms

While homophones are likely to get you in trouble when it comes to spelling — as anyone who’s ever mixed up “accept” and “except” can attest — homonyms are more of an issue when you’re quickly skimming something. For example, if you aren’t paying attention to context clues, reading a story about a king who wants air can be confusing for a moment. Is he in danger of suffocating, or is he asking a minstrel to sing a song? Fortunately, context clues clear up any confusion for most readers within moments, and comprehension is not an issue. Homonyms can be more confusing for young readers or people learning English as a second language, usually because they aren’t yet familiar with alternate definitions of the word.

The bottom line about homonyms? If you ever come across a word that just doesn’t seem to make sense in its context, check for alternate definitions. You may just have a homonym on your hands, and you’ll feel much smarter when you learn the secondary meaning of one of these tricky quirks of the English language.