Do you know what an antonym is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on antonyms, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Kevin
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November 12, 2021
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Common Questions
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What are antonyms?
According to Your Dictionary, antonyms are words that have the opposite meaning. There are a few different “nym” words in English – there are also synonyms, which are words with the same meaning, and homonyms, which are words that are pronounced and spelled the same, but have different meanings. According to Merriam-Webster, the word antonym was borrowed from the French antonyme, and was probably aback-formation after synonyme meaning synonym. This comes from antonymie, borrowed from Greek antōnymía, from ant- and anti- attached to -ōnymos.
Antonyms can have a binary relationship and be exact opposites, opposites of equal weighting, or have shades of oppositeness. The absolute opposites the antonym of hero and villain have lesser opposites in hero and coward. This part of speech is a mix of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and verbs. Linguists use antonyms to sense relation. This could also be known as a counter name. A word that has the opposite meaning of another word can be relational antonyms, graded antonyms/gradable antonyms and more. Learning opposites is a great way to quickly and easily expand your vocabulary. If you are trying to grow your English language vocabulary, try looking up antonyms to words that you already know the definition of.
Many different languages also contain words that mean antonyms. You may notice that some of these translations of antonyms look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of antonyms is provided by Word Sense.
- Armenian: հականիշ
- Dutch: tegendeel (neut.), tegengestelde (neut.), antoniem (neut.)
- Italian: antonimo (masc.), contrario (masc.), inverso (masc.), opposto (masc.)
- Hungarian: ellentét, antonima
- Romanian: antonim (neut.)
- Cyrillic: антоним (masc.)
- Icelandic: andheiti (neut.), andrætt orð (neut.)
- Swedish: antonym
- Danish: antonym (neut.)
- French: antonyme (masc.)
- Greek: αντώνυμο (neut.)
- Finnish: antonyymi, vastakohta
- Esperanto: antonimo
- Thai: คำตรงกันข้าม (kam dtrong gan kâam)
- Portuguese: antónimo (masc.) (Portugal), antônimo (masc.) (Brazil)
- Hindi: विपर्याय, विपरीतार्थी शब्द, विलोम
- Roman: antonim (masc.), nasuprotnica (fem.), odveznica (fem.)
- Telugu: వ్యతిరేక పదము
- Lithuanian: antonìmas (masc.)
- Tamil: எதிர்ச்சொல்
- Faroese: andheiti (neut.)
- Scottish Gaelic: frith-fhacal (masc.)
- Bulgarian: антони́м (masc.)
- Estonian: antonüüm
- Hebrew: הפך (masc.)
- Khmer: ន័យផ្ទុយ (ney ptuy)
- Mandarin: 反義詞, 反义词 (fǎnyìcí)
- Korean: 반대어 (bandeaeo), 반의어 (banuieo)
- Spanish: antónimo (masc.)
- Polish: antonim (m-in)
- Maori: kupu tauaro
- Latvian: antonīms (masc.)
- Norwegian: antonym
- Galician: antónimo (masc.)
- Indonesian: lawan kata, antonim
- Czech: antonymum (neut.), opozitum (neut.)
- Arabic: عَكْس (masc.), نَقِيض (masc.)
- Japanese: 対義語 (たいぎご, taigigo), 反意語 (はんいご, han’igo), 反対語 (はんたいご, hantaigo)
- Welsh: gwrthwynebair
- Russian: анто́ним (masc.)
- Latin: antonymum
- Slovene: prótipoménka (fem.), antoním (masc.)
- German: Antonym (neut.), Gegenwort (neut.), Gegensatzwort (neut.)
- Catalan: antònim (masc.)
- Interlingua: antonymo
- Afrikaans: teenoorgestelde
What are examples of antonyms?
antonyms can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or literary technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of common antonyms from Your Dictionary that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use.
- wise – foolish
- Giant – Dwarf
- Crooked – Straight
- Passive – Active
- Excusable – inexcusable
- Discreet – indiscreet
- Single – Married
- night – day
- Gloomy – Cheerful
- Liquid – Solid
- Wealth – Poverty
- Behave – misbehave
- Belief – disbelief
- Drunk – Sober
- Honest – dishonest
- hard – easy
- Lead – mislead
- Cautious – Careless
- off – on
- Complex – Simple
- Injustice – justice
- Combatant – noncombatant
- Permanent – Unstable
- Plentiful – Sparse
- Conformist – nonconformist
- Forgiving – unforgiving
- Praise – Criticism
- Appear – disappear
- Transparent – Opaque
- Urge – Deter
- Entity – nonentity
- Positive – Negative
- borrow – lend
- Able – unable
- Toward – Away
- Arrogant – Humble
- Simple – Complicated
- Random – Specific
- Generous – Stingy
- Divide – Unite
- Afraid – Confident
- Crazy – Sane
- early – late
- Upset – Relaxed
- Attack – Defend
- Fortunate – unfortunate
- Knowledge – Ignorance
- Likely – unlikely
- Tragic – Comic
- true – false
- Professional – Amateur
- Villain – Hero
- Quality – Inferiority
- happy – wistful
- Partial – Complete
- Sense – nonsense
- push – pull
- predator – prey
- give – receive
- entrance – exit
- Shame – Honor
- Private – Public
- exterior – interior
- young – elderly
- Vague – Definite
- fat – slim
- Triumph – Defeat
- Trust – mistrust
- Arrive – Depart
- Decent – indecent
- Marvelous – Terrible
- Sunny – Cloudy
- warm – cool
- Profit – Loss
- Problem – Solution
- Individual – Group
- fast – slow
- boy – girl
- Destroy – Create
- Freeze – Boil
- Tolerant – intolerant
- Innocent – Guilty
- Blunt – Sharp
- Noisy – Quiet
- pass – fail
- Timid – Bold
- dead – alive
- Powerful – Weak
- Demand – Supply
- buy – sell
- Full – Empty
- Expand – Contract
- Unique – Common
- above – below
- Interpret – misinterpret
- Union – Separation
- dark – pale
- Brave – Cowardly
- Agree – disagree
- Ancient – Modern
- doctor – patient
- servant – master
- Vacant – Occupied
- Wax – Wane
- instructor – pupil
- Achieve – Fail
- Payment – nonpayment
- Rigid – Flexible
- husband – wife
Take a look at the below antonyms that are used in famous quotes from Tutors.
- “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens:
It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way– in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Overall, an antonym is a word that has the opposite meaning of a word or definition of another word. For example, inner and outer would be considered antonyms of each other.
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