antonym
Etymology

From French antonyme (1840s and 1850s), which was modeled on earlier synonyme and influenced by the etymons of Ancient Greek ἀντωνυμία; credit for popularization of the French loanword's naturalization into English is given principally to Charles John Smith and his 1867 book ''Synonyms and Antonyms: Or, Kindred Words and Their Opposites.

Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈæn.təˌnɪm/
Noun

antonym (plural antonyms)

  1. (semantics) A word which has the opposite meaning of another word.
    Synonyms: counterterm, opposite
    Antonyms: synonym
    Coordinate terms: coordinate term, cohyponym; antiphrasis; near-synonym, parasynonym, plesionym
    “Rich” is an antonym of “poor”; “full” is an antonym of “empty”.
    1. A word that describes one end of a scale, while its opposite describes the other end, such as large versus small; a gradable antonym.
Translations


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