{{Short description|Words or phrases of the same meaning}} {{Other uses}} [[File:Library of Ashurbanipal synonym list tablet.jpg|thumb|Synonym list in cuneiform on a clay tablet, Neo-Assyrian period<ref>{{British-Museum-db|K.4375|id=308401}}</ref>]]
A '''synonym''' is a word, morpheme, or phrase that has a similar or identical meaning to another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Synonym {{!}} Definition, Meaning, & Examples |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/synonym |website=Britannica |date=27 February 2024 |language=en}}</ref> For example, in English, words like ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are synonyms: they are ''synonymous.'' The standard test for synonymy is substitution: one form can be used interchangeably without changing the meaning of the sentence.
Words may be synonymous in only one particular sense: for example, ''long'' and ''extended'' in the context of ''long time'' or ''extended time'' are synonymous, but ''long'' cannot be used in the phrase ''extended family''.
Synonyms with identical meanings share a seme or denotational sememe, whereas those with inexactly similar meanings share a broader denotational or connotational sememe and overlap within a semantic field. The former are sometimes known as cognitive synonyms, and the latter are referred to as near-synonyms,<ref name="Stanojević_2009">{{Citation |last=Stanojević |first=Maja |year=2009 |title= Cognitive synonymy: a general overview |journal=Facta Universitatis, Linguistics and Literature Series |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=193–200 | url=http://facta.junis.ni.ac.rs/lal/lal200902/lal200902-05.pdf |postscript=.}}</ref> plesionyms,<ref>DiMarco, Chrysanne, and Graeme Hirst. "Usage notes as the basis for a representation of near-synonymy for lexical choice." Proceedings of 9th annual conference of the University of Waterloo Centre for the New Oxford English Dictionary and Text Research. 1993.</ref> or poecilonyms.<ref>Grambs, David. The Endangered English Dictionary: Bodacious Words Your Dictionary Forgot. WW Norton & Company, 1997.</ref>
==Lexicography== Some lexicographers argue that no synonyms are identical (in all contexts or social levels of language) due to differences in etymology, orthography, phonic qualities, connotations, ambiguous meanings, and usage.<ref>"In the strictest sense, ''synonymous'' words scarcely exist". ''Standard Dictionary'' (Funk & Wagnalls, 1894), entry for ''synonyms'' or ''synonymous'', as quoted in ''Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms: A Dictionary of Discriminated Synonyms with Antonyms and Analogous and Contrasted Words'' (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam (Merriam-Webster ser.), [4th ed.] 1973 (SBN 0-87779-141-4)), p. 19a (''Survey of the History of English Synonymy'', in ''Introductory Matter''); ''accord'', ''Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms'', ''id.'', pp. 23a–25a, ''passim'' (''Synonym: Analysis and Definition'' (titular word & colon italicized in original & subtitle not), in ''Introductory Matter'').</ref> For example, ''feline'' is more formal than ''cat'', and a ''long arm'' is not the same as an ''extended arm'', as ''long'' and ''extended'' are not always interchangeable. Synonyms can also be used as euphemisms.
Metonymy is sometimes a type of synonymy. For example, ''White House'' is often used as a synonym of ''the administration'' to refer to the U.S. executive branch under a specific president.<ref>{{Cite web |title=World Architecture Images – The White House |url=http://www.essential-architecture.com/A-AMERICA-N/USA/USA-Washington/DC-001.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071110040451/http://www.essential-architecture.com/A-AMERICA-N/USA/USA-Washington/DC-001.htm |archive-date=November 10, 2007 |access-date=2019-12-09 |website=essential-architecture.com}}</ref> In this context, ''metonymy'' functions as a hyponym of ''synonymy''.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}
The study of synonymy, polysemy, hyponymy, and hypernymy is essential in information science for taxonomy and ontology.<ref>Hirst, Graeme. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20211104132456/ftp://ftp.db.toronto.edu/public_html/dist/gh/Hirst-Ontol-2009-as-published.pdf Ontology and the lexicon]." Handbook on ontologies. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2009. 269–292.</ref> This analysis is also important in pedagogy and machine learning for word-sense disambiguation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Turney |first=Peter D. |date=2008 |title=A Uniform Approach to Analogies, Synonyms, Antonyms, and Associations |url=http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1599081.1599195 |journal=Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Computational Linguistics - Volume 1 |series=COLING '08 |location=Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, US |publisher=Association for Computational Linguistics |pages=905–912 |arxiv=0809.0124 |isbn=978-1-905593-44-6}}</ref>
==Etymology== The term synonym is derived from the Latin word ''{{Lang|la|synōnymum}}'', which was borrowed from the Ancient Greek word ''{{Transliteration|grc|synōnymon}}'' ({{lang|grc|συνώνυμον}}). It is composed of the Greek elements ''{{Transliteration|grc|sýn}}'' ({{lang|grc|σύν}}, meaning 'together, similar, alike') and ''-{{Transliteration|grc|ōnym}}-'' ({{lang|grc|-ωνυμ-}}), a form of ''{{Transliteration|grc|onoma}}'' ({{lang|grc|ὄνομα}}, meaning 'name').<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'', 1st edition, 1919, [https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/196522 ''s.v.'']</ref>
==Sources== Synonyms in a language can come from different linguistic strata. In English, superstratum words from Norman French and Old English coexist, creating words like ''people, liberty'', ''archer'' (from Norman French) and ''folk'', ''freedom'', ''bowman'' (from Old English).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bradley |first=Henry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3qs0AQAAMAAJ&q=origin+on+english+synonym&pg=PA1 |title=The Making of English |date=1922 |publisher=Macmillan and Company, Limited |language=en}}</ref> For more examples, see the list of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English.
Loanwords are frequently used as synonyms, often borrowed from the dominant culture's language in a region. European languages commonly borrow from Latin and ancient Greek for technical terms, while native terms are used in everyday language. In East Asia, languages like Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese incorporate Chinese borrowings alongside native words. Arabic and Persian are significant sources of synonymous borrowings in Islamic cultures.
In Turkish, ''{{Lang|tr|kara}}'' and ''{{Lang|tr|siyah}}'' both mean 'black', with ''{{Lang|tr|kara}}'' being a native Turkish word and siyah a borrowing from Persian. In Ottoman Turkish, water is often referred to as ''{{Lang|tr|su}}'' (Turkish), ''{{Lang|fa-latn|âb}}'' (Persian), or ''{{Lang|ar-latn|mâ}}'' (Arabic), "such a triad of synonyms exists in Ottoman for every meaning, without exception". These synonyms in Ottoman Turkish offer nuances and variations in meaning or usage.<ref>Ziya Gökalp, ''The Principles of Turkism'', 1968, p. 78</ref>
In English, Latin (L) and Greek (Gk) terms are often synonymous with Germanic ones. For example, ''thought'' and ''notion'' (L) are synonymous with ''idea'' (Gk), while ''ring'' and ''circle'' (L) are synonymous with ''cycle'' (Gk). English typically uses the Germanic term as a noun, but employs Latin and Greek adjectives. For instance, ''hand'' and ''manual'' (L) are synonymous with ''chiral'' (Gk), and ''heat'' and ''thermal'' (L) are synonymous with ''caloric'' (Gk). In some cases, the Germanic term has become rare or limited to specific meanings, such as tide, ''time''/''temporal'', and ''chronic''.<ref>Carl Darling Buck, ''A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages'', 1949, reprinted as {{isbn|0226079376}}</ref>
Many bound morphemes in English are borrowed from Latin and Greek, serving as synonyms for native words or morphemes. For example, ''fish'' corresponds to ''pisci''- (L) and ''ichthy''- (Gk).
Coinages are another source of synonyms, often motivated by linguistic purism. For example, the English word ''foreword'' was coined to replace the Romance term ''preface''. In Turkish, the word ''{{Lang|tr|okul}}'' was created to replace the Arabic-derived ''mektep'' and ''mederese'', although the latter terms are still used in certain contexts.<ref>Geoffrey Lewis, ''The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success'', 1999, {{isbn|0198238568}}, p. 44, 70, 117</ref>
==Uses== Synonyms often convey subtle differences in meaning or are employed in various speech or writing registers.
Different technical fields may use synonyms to express specific technical distinctions.
Elegant variation is the practice of using synonyms to avoid repetition of the same word in proximity by using synonyms. However, modern style guides often criticize this practice.
==Examples== Synonyms can be any part of speech, as long as both words are of the same part of speech. Examples: * noun: ''drink'' and ''beverage'' * verb: ''buy'' and ''purchase'' * adjective: ''big'' and ''large'' * adverb: ''quickly'' and ''speedily'' * preposition: ''on'' and ''upon''
Synonyms are defined according to certain senses of words. For example, ''pupil'' refers to the ''aperture in the eye'', not a ''student''. ''He expired'' is synonymous with ''he died'', but ''my passport has expired'' cannot be replaced with ''my passport has died''.
A thesaurus or synonym dictionary lists similar or related words; these are often, but not always, synonyms.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allacronyms.com/|title=Synonym dictionary words and phrases|website=www.allacronyms.com|access-date=2018-04-27}}</ref> * The word '''''poecilonym''''' is a rare synonym of the word ''synonym''. It is not entered in most major dictionaries and is a curiosity or piece of trivia for being an autological word due to its meta nature as a synonym of ''synonym''. * Antonyms are words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings. For example, ''hot'' ↔ ''cold'', ''large'' ↔ ''small'', ''thick'' ↔ ''thin'', ''synonym'' ↔ ''antonym'' * Hypernyms and hyponyms represent a broader category and a specific instance within that category. For instance, ''vehicle'' is a hypernym of ''car'', while ''car'' is a hyponym of ''vehicle''. * Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings. For example, ''witch'' and ''which'' are homophones in most accents because they are pronounced in the same way. * Homographs are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. For example, ''record'' can refer to both the act of ''recording'' a song and keeping a ''record'' of documents. * Homonyms are words that have the same pronunciation and spelling but different meanings. For example, ''rose'' can refer to a type of flower or the past tense of ''rise''.
==See also== * -onym * Cognitive synonymy * Elegant variation, the gratuitous use of a synonym in prose * Semantic equivalence (linguistics) * Synonym (taxonomy) * Synonymy in Japanese * Synset, a set of synonyms in computational linguistics * {{Annotated link|Thesaurus|Thesauri and synonym dictionaries}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Wiktionary-inline}}
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Category:Types of words Category:Semantic relations