Antonym is a semantic relationship established between two or more words that have conflicting meanings or that are incompatible within the same context. For example: day/night, dead/alive, striped/plain.

The opposite of antonyms are synonyms , words that share meaning. For example: cute/beautiful. 

  • See also:  Synonyms and antonyms

types of antonyms

  • Scalars . Between the opposing terms there are terms that can be inserted, according to a gradual scale. For example: tiny/huge . In the middle you can insert words like: small, medium, large, giant.
  • polar . They lack intermediate degrees and the negation of one of these words represents the affirmation of the other or the meaning of one eliminates that of the other. For example: alive/dead . Someone cannot be alive and dead at the same time, and there are no intermediate degrees between life and death.
  • Reciprocals . These are those antonyms in which the meaning of one implies the existence of the other, that is, one cannot exist without the other. For example, for a person to be a father, he needs to have a child. Other examples could be: give/receive, buy/sell .

examples of antonyms

black White sick – healthy broken – healthy
fat – skinny get out come in light – shadow
cute – ugly by – odd cover – uncover
High Low Laugh cry min MAX
big small lie, truth strong weak
far near wet dry fast slow
Summer Winter noise – silence cloudy – clear
Live dead hunger – satiety few – many
day Night Angel Demon just unfair
artificial-natural up and down cowardly – ​​brave
cold hot full empty rich, poor
happy Sad hate love build – destroy
off – on easy hard take off landing
short long bad good Peace war
weak strong separate – unite order – chaos
clean dirty dark light altruism – selfishness
thin thick ancient – ​​modern sit – stop
illegal – legal open close sleep – wake up
private public cheap expensive triumph – defeat
noise – silence early late show hide
pay – collect heavy light lack – leftover
give – receive polite – rude have – lack
save – spend old young blind – sighted
talk – shut up brave – fearful cult – ignorant
single married up down clumsy – agile