antonym

/'æntənim/

Thân thiện

The teacher writes the word "hot" and its antonym "cold" on the board.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • A word that expresses a meaning opposed to the meaning of another word: An "antonym" is a word that has the opposite meaning of another specific word. When two words are antonyms, they form a pair of opposites.

Usage and Examples

• Noun:
  • "Hot" is an antonym of "cold".
  • In the vocabulary exercise, students were asked to match each word with its antonym.
  • The words "arrive" and "depart" are antonyms.

Advanced Usage

• Graded Antonyms: Pairs that allow for degrees of comparison (e.g., and , where and are intermediate states).
  • "Young" and "old" are graded antonyms; you can be "very young" or "quite old".
• Complementary Antonyms: Pairs that represent an either/or relationship, with no middle ground (e.g., and ).
  • "True" and "false" are complementary antonyms; a statement cannot be both.
• Relational Antonyms: Pairs that describe a relationship from opposite perspectives (e.g., and , and ).
  • In the transaction, "borrow" and "lend" are relational antonyms.

Variants and Related Words

• Antonymous (adj): Having the nature of an antonym; being opposite in meaning.
  • The words have an antonymous relationship.
• Antonymy (n): The semantic relationship of opposition between words.
  • The concept of antonymy is fundamental to understanding vocabulary.

Synonyms

• Opposite: A word or thing that is totally different from another in nature or quality.
• Counterterm: (Less common) A term that is the opposite of another.

Antonyms

• Synonym: A word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word.
  • "Rapid" is a synonym for "fast", not an antonym.

Related Phrases and Concepts

• Auto-antonym (or Contronym): A word that can have two opposite meanings (e.g., can mean to approve or to penalize).
  • The word "cleave" is an auto-antonym because it can mean to split apart or to cling together.
• Direct antonym: The most precise and commonly accepted opposite for a given word.
  • For the word "light," "dark" is considered its direct antonym in most contexts.

Học thuật

Noun

1. a word that expresses a meaning opposed to the meaning of another word, in which case the two words are antonyms of each other
   • to him the antonym of `gay' was `depressed'

Từ đồng nghĩa

• opposite word
• opposite