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)
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