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 |
We Recommend Below Also: