Synonym

Asynonymis aword,morpheme,orphrasethat means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language.^[2]For example, in theEnglish language,the wordsbegin,start,commence,andinitiateare all synonyms of one another: they aresynonymous.The standard test for synonymy is substitution: one form can be replaced by another in a sentence without changing its meaning.

Words may often be synonymous in only one particularsense:for example,longandextendedin thecontextlong timeorextended timeare synonymous, butlongcannot be used in the phraseextended family.

Synonyms with exactly the same meaning share asemeor denotationalsememe,whereas those with inexactly similar meanings share a broader denotational orconnotationalsememe and thus overlap within asemantic field.The former are sometimes calledcognitive synonymsand the latter, near-synonyms,^[3]plesionyms^[4]or poecilonyms.^[5]

Lexicography

Somelexicographersclaim that no synonyms have exactly the same meaning (in all contexts or social levels of language) becauseetymology,orthography,phonic qualities,connotations,ambiguous meanings,usage,and so on make them unique.^[6]Different words that are similar in meaning usually differ for a reason:felineis more formal thancat;longandextendedare only synonyms in one usage and not in others (for example, along armis not the same as anextended arm). Synonyms are also a source ofeuphemisms.

Metonymycan sometimes be a form of synonymy:theWhite Houseis used as a synonym ofthe administrationin referring to theU.S. executive branchunder a specific president.^[7]Thus, a metonym is a type of synonym, and the wordmetonymis ahyponymof the wordsynonym.^{[citation needed]}

The analysis of synonymy,polysemy,hyponymy, and hypernymy is inherent totaxonomyandontologyin theinformation sciencesenses of those terms.^[8]It has applications inpedagogyandmachine learning,because they rely onword-sense disambiguation.^[9]

Etymology

The word is borrowed fromLatinsynōnymum,in turn borrowed fromAncient Greeksynōnymon(συνώνυμον), composed ofsýn(σύν'together, similar, alike') and-ōnym-(-ωνυμ-), a form ofonoma(ὄνομα'name').^[10]

Sources

Synonyms are often from the differentstratamaking up a language. For example, in English,Norman French superstratumwords andOld English substratumwords continue to coexist.^[11]Thus, today there exist synonyms like the Norman-derivedpeople,libertyandarcher,and the Saxon-derivedfolk,freedomandbowman.For more examples, see thelist of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English.

Loanwordsare another rich source of synonyms, often from the language of the dominant culture of a region. Thus, most European languages have borrowed from Latin and ancient Greek, especially for technical terms, but the native terms continue to be used in non-technical contexts. InEast Asia,borrowings fromChineseinJapanese,Korean,andVietnameseoften double native terms. In Islamic cultures,ArabicandPersianare large sources of synonymous borrowings.

For example, inTurkish,karaandsiyahboth mean 'black', the former being a native Turkish word, and the latter being a borrowing from Persian. InOttoman Turkish,there were often three synonyms: water can besu(Turkish),âb(Persian), ormâ(Arabic): "such a triad of synonyms exists in Ottoman for every meaning, without exception". As always with synonyms, there are nuances and shades of meaning or usage.^[12]

In English, similarly, there often exist Latin (L) and Greek (Gk) terms synonymous with Germanic ones:thought,notion(L),idea(Gk);ring,circle(L),cycle(Gk). English often uses the Germanic term only as a noun, but has Latin and Greek adjectives:hand,manual(L),chiral(Gk);heat,thermal(L),caloric(Gk). Sometimes the Germanic term has become rare, or restricted to special meanings:tide,time/temporal,chronic.^[13]

Manybound morphemesin English are borrowed from Latin and Greek and are synonyms for native words or morphemes:fish,pisci-(L),ichthy-(Gk).

Another source of synonyms iscoinages,which may be motivated bylinguistic purism.Thus, the English wordforewordwas coined to replace the Romancepreface.In Turkish,okulwas coined to replace the Arabic-derivedmektepandmederese,but those words continue to be used in some contexts.^[14]

Uses

Synonyms often express a nuance of meaning or are used in differentregistersof speech or writing.

Various technical domains may employ synonyms to convey precise technical nuances.

Some writers avoid repeating the same word in close proximity, and prefer to use synonyms: this is calledelegant variation.Many modern style guides criticize this.

Examples

Synonyms can be anypart of speech,as long as both words belong to the same part of speech. Examples:

noun:drinkandbeverage
verb:buyandpurchase
adjective:bigandlarge
adverb:quicklyandspeedily
preposition:onandupon

Synonyms are defined with respect to certain senses of words:pupilas theaperture in the iris of the eyeis not synonymous withstudent.Similarly,he expiredmeans the same ashe died,yetmy passport has expiredcannot be replaced bymy passport has died.

Athesaurus or synonym dictionarylists similar or related words; these are often, but not always, synonyms.^[15]

The wordpoecilonymis a rare synonym of the wordsynonym.It is not entered in most major dictionaries and is a curiosity or piece of trivia for being anautological wordbecause of itsmetaquality as a synonym ofsynonym.
Antonymsare words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings. For example:hot↔cold,large↔small,thick↔thin,synonym↔antonym
Hypernyms and hyponymsare words that refer to, respectively, a general category and a specific instance of that category. For example,vehicleis a hypernym ofcar,andcaris a hyponym ofvehicle.
Homophonesare words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings. For example,witchandwhichare homophones in most accents (because they are pronounced the same).
Homographsare words that have the same spelling but different meanings. For example, one canrecorda song or keep arecordof documents.
Homonymsare words that have the same pronunciation and spelling but different meanings. For example,rose(a type of flower) androse(past tense ofrise) are homonyms.

References

^K.4375
^"Synonym | Definition, Meaning, & Examples".Britannica.27 February 2024.
^Stanojević, Maja (2009),"Cognitive synonymy: a general overview"(PDF),Facta Universitatis, Linguistics and Literature Series,7(2): 193–200.
^DiMarco, Chrysanne, and Graeme Hirst. "Usage notes as the basis for a representation of near-synonymy for lexical choice." Proceedings of 9th annual conference of the University of Waterloo Centre for the New Oxford English Dictionary and Text Research. 1993.
^Grambs, David. The Endangered English Dictionary: Bodacious Words Your Dictionary Forgot. WW Norton & Company, 1997.
^"In the strictest sense,synonymouswords scarcely exist ".Standard Dictionary(Funk & Wagnalls, 1894), entry forsynonymsorsynonymous,as quoted inWebster's New Dictionary of Synonyms: A Dictionary of Discriminated Synonyms with Antonyms and Analogous and Contrasted Words(Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam (Merriam-Webster ser.), [4th ed.] 1973 (SBN 0-87779-141-4)), p. 19a (Survey of the History of English Synonymy,inIntroductory Matter);accord,Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms,id.,pp. 23a–25a,passim(Synonym: Analysis and Definition(titular word & colon italicized in original & subtitle not), inIntroductory Matter).
^"World Architecture Images – The White House".essential-architecture.com.Retrieved2019-12-09.
^Hirst, Graeme. "Ontology and the lexicon."Handbook on ontologies. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2009. 269-292.
^Turney, Peter D. (2008)."A Uniform Approach to Analogies, Synonyms, Antonyms, and Associations".Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Computational Linguistics – Volume 1.COLING '08. Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, US: Association for Computational Linguistics: 905–912.arXiv:0809.0124.ISBN 978-1-905593-44-6.
^Oxford English Dictionary,1st edition, 1919,s.v.
^Bradley, Henry (1922).The Making of English.Macmillan and Company, Limited.
^Ziya Gökalp,The Principles of Turkism,1968, p. 78
^Carl Darling Buck,A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages,1949, reprinted asISBN 0226079376
^Geoffrey Lewis,The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success,1999,ISBN 0198238568,p. 44, 70, 117
^"Synonym dictionary words and phrases".www.allacronyms.com.Retrieved2018-04-27.

External links

The dictionary definition ofsynonymat Wiktionary

[1] K.4375

[2] "Synonym | Definition, Meaning, & Examples".Britannica.27 February 2024.

[Stanojević_2009-3] Stanojević, Maja (2009),"Cognitive synonymy: a general overview"(PDF),Facta Universitatis, Linguistics and Literature Series,7(2): 193–200.

[4] DiMarco, Chrysanne, and Graeme Hirst. "Usage notes as the basis for a representation of near-synonymy for lexical choice." Proceedings of 9th annual conference of the University of Waterloo Centre for the New Oxford English Dictionary and Text Research. 1993.

[5] Grambs, David. The Endangered English Dictionary: Bodacious Words Your Dictionary Forgot. WW Norton & Company, 1997.

[6] "In the strictest sense,synonymouswords scarcely exist ".Standard Dictionary(Funk & Wagnalls, 1894), entry forsynonymsorsynonymous,as quoted inWebster's New Dictionary of Synonyms: A Dictionary of Discriminated Synonyms with Antonyms and Analogous and Contrasted Words(Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam (Merriam-Webster ser.), [4th ed.] 1973 (SBN 0-87779-141-4)), p. 19a (Survey of the History of English Synonymy,inIntroductory Matter);accord,Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms,id.,pp. 23a–25a,passim(Synonym: Analysis and Definition(titular word & colon italicized in original & subtitle not), inIntroductory Matter).

[7] "World Architecture Images – The White House".essential-architecture.com.Retrieved2019-12-09.

[8] Hirst, Graeme. "Ontology and the lexicon."Handbook on ontologies. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2009. 269-292.

[9] Turney, Peter D. (2008)."A Uniform Approach to Analogies, Synonyms, Antonyms, and Associations".Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Computational Linguistics – Volume 1.COLING '08. Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, US: Association for Computational Linguistics: 905–912.arXiv:0809.0124.ISBN 978-1-905593-44-6.

[10] Oxford English Dictionary,1st edition, 1919,s.v.

[11] Bradley, Henry (1922).The Making of English.Macmillan and Company, Limited.

[12] Ziya Gökalp,The Principles of Turkism,1968, p. 78

[13] Carl Darling Buck,A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages,1949, reprinted asISBN 0226079376

[14] Geoffrey Lewis,The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success,1999,ISBN 0198238568,p. 44, 70, 117

[15] "Synonym dictionary words and phrases".www.allacronyms.com.Retrieved2018-04-27.

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