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English Synonyms and Antonyms

<h3>LANGUAGE.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>barbarism,</td><td>expression,</td><td>patois,</td><td>vernacular,</td></tr> <tr><td>dialect,</td><td>idiom,</td><td>speech,</td><td>vocabulary.</td></tr> <tr><td>diction,</td><td>mother tongue,</td><td colspan="2">tongue,</td></tr> </table> Language (F. langage < L. lingua, the tongue) signified originally expression of thought by spoken words, but now in its widest sense it signifies expression of thought by any means; as, the language of the eyes, the language of flowers. As regards the use of words, language in its broadest sense denotes all the uttered sounds and their combinations into words and sentences that human beings employ for the communication of thought, and, in a more limited sense, the words or combinations forming a means of communication among the members of a single nation, people, or race. Speech involves always the power of articulate utterance; we can speak of the language of animals, but not of their speech. A tongue is the speech or language of some one people, country, or race. A dialect is a special mode of speaking a language peculiar to some locality or class, not recognized as in accordance with the best usage; a barbarism is a perversion of a language by ignorant foreigners, or some usage akin to that. Idiom refers to the construction of phrases and sentences, and the way of forming or using words; it is the peculiar mold in which each language casts its thought. The great difficulty of translation is to give the thought expressed in one language in the idiom of another. A dialect may be used by the highest as well as the lowest within its range; a patois is distinctly illiterate, belonging to the lower classes; those who speak a patois understand the cultured form of their own language, but speak only the degraded form, as in the case of the Italian lazzaroni or the former negro slaves in the United States. Vernacular, from the Latin, has the same general sense as the Saxon mother tongue, of one's native language, or that of a people; as, the Scriptures were translated into the vernacular. Compare DICTION. <hr /> <h3>LARGE.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>abundant,</td><td>coarse,</td><td>gigantic,</td><td>long,</td></tr> <tr><td>ample,</td><td>colossal,</td><td>grand,</td><td>massive,</td></tr> <tr><td>big,</td><td>commodious,</td><td>great,</td><td>spacious,</td></tr> <tr><td>broad,</td><td>considerable,</td><td>huge,</td><td>vast,</td></tr> <tr><td>bulky,</td><td>enormous,</td><td>immense,</td><td>wide.</td></tr> <tr><td>capacious,</td><td colspan="3">extensive,</td></tr> </table> Large denotes extension in more than one direction, and beyond the average of the class to which the object belongs; we speak of a large surface or a large solid, but of a long line; a large field, a large room, a large apple, etc. A large man is a man of more than ordinary size; a great man is a man of remarkable mental power. Big is a more emphatic word than large, but of less dignity. We do not say that George Washington was a big man. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>brief,</td><td>infinitesimal,</td><td>little,</td><td>minute,</td><td>petty,</td><td>slender,</td><td>tiny,</td></tr> <tr><td>diminutive,</td><td>insignificant,</td><td>mean,</td><td>narrow,</td><td>scanty,</td><td>slight,</td><td>trifling,</td></tr> <tr><td>inconsiderable,</td><td>limited,</td><td>microscopic,</td><td>paltry,</td><td>short,</td><td>small,</td><td>trivial.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>LAW.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>canon,</td><td>economy,</td><td>legislation,</td><td>principle,</td></tr> <tr><td>code,</td><td>edict,</td><td>mandate,</td><td>regulation,</td></tr> <tr><td>command,</td><td>enactment,</td><td>order,</td><td>rule,</td></tr> <tr><td>commandment,</td><td>formula,</td><td>ordinance,</td><td>statute.</td></tr> <tr><td>decree,</td><td>jurisprudence,</td><td colspan="2">polity,</td></tr> </table> Law, in its ideal, is the statement of a principle of right in mandatory form, by competent authority, with adequate penalty for disobedience; in common use, the term is applied to any legislative act, however imperfect or unjust. Command and commandment are personal and particular; as, the commands of a parent; the ten commandments. An edict is the act of an absolute sovereign or other authority; we speak of the edict of an emperor, the decree of a court. A mandate is specific, for an occasion or a purpose; a superior court issues its mandate to an inferior court to send up its records. Statute is the recognized legal term for a specific law; enactment is the more vague and general expression. We speak of algebraic or chemical formulas, municipal ordinances, military orders, army regulations, ecclesiastical canons, the rules of a business house. Law is often used, also, for a recognized principle, whose violation is attended with injury or loss that acts like a penalty; as, the laws of business; the laws of nature. In more strictly scientific use, a natural law is simply a recognized system of sequences or relations; as, Kepler's laws of planetary distances. A code is a system of laws; jurisprudence is the science of law, or a system of laws scientifically considered, classed, and interpreted; legislation, primarily the act of legislating, denotes also the body of statutes enacted by a legislative body. An economy (Gr. oikonomia, primarily the management of a house) is any comprehensive system of administration; as, domestic economy; but the word is extended to the administration or government of a state or people, signifying a body of laws and regulations, with the entire system, political or religious, especially the latter, of which they form a part; as, the code of Draco, Roman jurisprudence, British legislation, the Mosaic economy. Law is also used as a collective noun for a system of laws or recognized rules or regulations, including not only all special laws, but the principles on which they are based. The Mosaic economy is known also as the Mosaic law, and we speak of the English common law, or the law of nations. Polity (Gr. politeia, from polis, a city) signifies the form, constitution, or method of government of a nation, state, church, or other institution; in usage it differs from economy as applying rather to the system, while economy applies especially to method, or to the system as administered; an economy might be termed a polity considered with especial reference to its practical administration, hence commonly with special reference to details or particulars, while polity has more reference to broad principles. <hr /> <h3>LIBERTY.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>emancipation,</td><td>freedom,</td><td>independence,</td><td>license.</td></tr> </table> In general terms, it may be said that freedom is absolute, liberty relative; freedom is the absence of restraint, liberty is primarily the removal or avoidance of restraint; in its broadest sense, it is the state of being exempt from the domination of others or from restricting circumstances. Freedom and liberty are constantly interchanged; the slave is set at liberty, or gains his freedom; but freedom is the nobler word. Independence is said of states or nations, freedom and liberty of individuals; the independence of the United States did not secure liberty or freedom to its slaves. Liberty keeps quite strictly to the thought of being clear of restraint or compulsion; freedom takes a wider range, applying to other oppressive influences; thus, we speak of freedom from annoyance or intrusion. License is, in its limited sense, a permission or privilege granted by adequate authority, a bounded liberty; in the wider sense, license is an ignoring and defiance of all that should restrain, and a reckless doing of all that individual caprice or passion may choose to do—a base and dangerous counterfeit of freedom. Compare ALLOW; PERMISSION. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>captivity,</td><td>imprisonment,</td><td>oppression,</td><td>slavery,</td></tr> <tr><td>compulsion,</td><td>necessity,</td><td>serfdom,</td><td>superstition,</td></tr> <tr><td>constraint,</td><td>obligation,</td><td>servitude,</td><td>thraldom.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>LIGHT.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>blaze,</td><td>gleam,</td><td>glow,</td><td>shimmer,</td></tr> <tr><td>flame,</td><td>gleaming,</td><td>illumination,</td><td>shine,</td></tr> <tr><td>flare,</td><td>glimmer,</td><td>incandescence,</td><td>shining,</td></tr> <tr><td>flash,</td><td>glistening,</td><td>luster,</td><td>sparkle,</td></tr> <tr><td>flicker,</td><td>glistering,</td><td>scintillation,</td><td>twinkle,</td></tr> <tr><td>glare,</td><td>glitter,</td><td>sheen,</td><td>twinkling.</td></tr> </table> Light, strictly denoting a form of radiant energy, is used as a general term for any luminous effect discernible by the eye, from the faintest phosphorescence to the blaze of the noonday sun. A flame is both hot and luminous; if it contains few solid particles it will yield little light, tho it may afford intense heat, as in the case of a hydrogen-flame. A blaze is an extensive, brilliant flame. A flare is a wavering flame or blaze; a flash is a light that appears and disappears in an instant; as, a flash of lightning; the flash of gunpowder. The glare and glow are steady, the glare painfully bright, the glow subdued; as, the glare of torches; the glow of dying embers. Shine and shining refer to a steady or continuous emission of light; sheen is a faint shining, usually by reflection. Glimmer, glitter, and shimmer denote wavering light. We speak of the glimmer of distant lamps through the mist; of the shimmer of waves in sunlight or moonlight. A gleam is not wavering, but transient or intermittent; a sudden gleam of light came through the half-open door; a glitter is a hard light; as, the glitter of burnished arms. A sparkle is a sudden light, as of sparks thrown out; scintillation is the more exact and scientific term for the actual emission of sparks, also the figurative term for what suggests such emission; as, scintillations of wit or of genius. Twinkle and twinkling are used of the intermittent light of the fixed stars. Glistening is a shining as from a wet surface. Illumination is a wide-spread, brilliant light, as when all the windows of a house or of a street are lighted. The light of incandescence is intense and white like that from metal at a white heat. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>blackness,</td><td>darkness,</td><td>dusk,</td><td>gloominess,</td><td>shade,</td></tr> <tr><td>dark,</td><td>dimness,</td><td>gloom,</td><td>obscurity,</td><td>shadow.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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