antonym
noun
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Some Differences Between Synonyms and Antonyms
The English language (and, we may presume, many other languages) has both antonyms and synonyms. There are many more words with synonyms than there are words with antonyms, since many things exist which do not have an opposite (the word sandwich, for instance, may be said to have synonyms in the words hoagie, grinder, submarine, and many other words, but there is no opposite of sandwich). Antonym is also a much more recent addition to English than synonym is; it first appeared in the 1860s, whereas synonym has been used for more than 500 years. Additionally, both nouns have adjectival forms: synonymous and antonymous. Synonymous, which is often used loosely ("She has become synonymous with good taste"), is the more common of the two.
Example Sentences
Max Cea, Vulture, 18 Mar. 2021 Cooper, on the other hand, is the living, breathing antonym of controversy. Nick Martin, The New Republic, 26 Oct. 2020 And still the signs fluttered and scattered, the book of antonyms ripped up by Sanders delegates, who tore at its pages and yanked at its binding, its brittle glue. Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 29 July 2016 Word History
borrowed from French antonyme, probably back-formation (after synonyme synonym) from antonymie "opposition of words with contrary senses," borrowed from Greek antōnymía "pronoun (i.e., a word substituting for another), interchange of names," from ant-, anti- "in opposition to, in place of" + -ōnymos "having a name (of the kind specified)" + -ia -ia entry 1 — more at anti-, homonymous
Note: French antonyme appears in the title and text of Dictionnaire des antonymes ou contremots (Paris & Berlin, 1842), an early dictionary of antonyms compiled from 17th-18th-century authors by the Alsatian philologist Paul Ackermann (1812-46), who may have coined the word. In English antonym was promulgated, if not first used, by the British clergyman Charles John Smith (1819-72) in Synonyms and Antonyms, Collected and Contrasted (London: Bell & Daldy, 1867), which went through several subsequent editions and reprints.
1857, in the meaning defined above
Kids Definition
antonym
noun
antonymic
adjective
Synonyms & Similar Words
- antonymous
- diverse
- different
- antithetical
- dissimilar
- distinctive
- disparate
- nonidentical
- distinguishable
- contradictory
- unlike
- opposite
- antipodal
- other
- diametric
- distinct
- distant
- polar
- unalike
- diametrical
- antipodean
- discriminable
- contrary
- differentiable
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- similar
- corresponding
- parallel
- analogous
- such
- comparable
- synonymous
- coordinate
- matching
- same
- equivalent
- like
- identical
- tantamount
- correspondent
- duplicate
- akin
- indistinguishable
- alike
- equal
- suchlike
- coequal
- cognate
- look-alike
- even
- resembling
- connate
- resemblant
- ditto