This article deals with the general meaning of the term "synonym". For biological synonyms, see Synonym (taxonomy).
Synonyms
are different words (or sometimes phrases) with identical or very similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous
, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy
. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn
(wikt:s??) ("with") and onoma
(wikt:???µa) ("name"). The words car
and automobile
are synonyms. Similarly, if we talk about a long time
or an extended time
, long
and extended
become synonyms. In the figurative sense, two words are often said to be synonymous if they have the same connotation:
"a widespread impression that … Hollywood was synonymous with immorality" (Doris Kearns Goodwin)
Synonyms can be any part of speech (e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs or prepositions), as long as both members of the pair are the same part of speech. More examples of English synonyms are:
- student
and pupil
(noun)
- petty crime
and misdemeanor
(noun)
- buy
and purchase
(verb)
- sick
and ill
(adjective)
- quickly
and speedily
(adverb)
- on
and upon
(preposition)
Note that synonyms are defined with respect to certain senses of words; for instance, pupil
as the "aperture in the iris of the eye"
is not synonymous with student
. Similarly, he expired
means the same as he died
, yet my passport has expired
cannot be replaced by my passport has died
.
In English many synonyms evolved from a mixture of Norman French and English words, often with some words associated with the Saxon countryside ("folk"
, "freedom"
) and synonyms with the Norman nobility ("people"
, "liberty"
).
Some lexicographers claim that no synonyms have exactly the same meaning (in all contexts or social levels of language) because etymology, orthography, phonic qualities, ambiguous meanings, usage, etc. make them unique. Different words that are similar in meaning usually differ for a reason: feline
is more formal than cat
; long
and extended
are only synonyms in one usage and not in others (for example, a long arm
is not the same as an extended arm
). Synonyms are also a source of euphemisms.
The purpose of a thesaurus is to offer the user a listing of similar or related words; these are often, but not always, synonyms.
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