Antonyms,
from the Greek anti ("against") and onoma ("name") are word
pairs that are opposite in meaning, such as hot and cold,
fat and thin, and up and down. Words may have different
antonyms, depending on the meaning. Both long and tall are
antonyms of short. Antonyms are of three types:
Gradable antonyms are pairs that express relationships in a
continuum, such as up and down Complementary antonyms are
pairs that express an either/or relationship, such as dead
or alive.
Relational antonyms are
pairs in which one describes a relationship between two
objects and the other describes the same relationship when
the two objects are reversed, such as parent and child,
teacher and student, or buy and sell.
Although the word antonym was only coined by philologists in
the 19th century, such relationships are a fundamental part
of a language, in contrast to
synonyms, which are
a result of history and drawing of fine distinctions, or
Homonyms,
which are mostly etymological accidents or coincidences. A
few words with two antonymous meanings may also be
designated contronyms, occasionally spelled contranyms:
enjoin (to prohibit; to order)
fast (moving quickly; fixed firmly in place)
cleave (to split; to adhere) |
