antonym
noun/ˈæn.təˌnɪm/
Etymology From French antonyme (1840s and 1850s), which was modeled on earlier synonyme and influenced by the etymons of Ancient Greek ἀντωνυμία (antōnumía, “pronoun”); credit for popularization of the French loanword's naturalization into English is given principally to Charles John Smith and his 1867 book Synonyms and Antonyms: Or, Kindred Words and Their Opposites. Collected and Contrasted. By surface analysis, ant- + -onym.
1
Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences, Semantics A word which has the opposite meaning of another word.
- “Rich” is an antonym of “poor”; “full” is an antonym of “empty”.
2
Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences, Semantics A word that describes one end of a scale, while its opposite describes the other end, such as large versus small; a gradable antonym.
- All four lines of the pattern are required to establish that hot and cold are antonyms. The water is hot entails The water is not cold. The water is cold entails The water is not hot. The water is not hot does not entail The water is cold. The water is not cold does not entail The water is hot.2005, Andrew John Merrison, Aileen Bloomer, Patrick Griffiths, Christopher J. Hall, Introducing Language in Use, page 111:
- "The word 'boom' always makes me uneasy because the antonym of it is bust," said Patrick Jankowski, vice president of research at the Greater Houston Partnership. "Houston is not in a boom -- it is on a new path."2008 October 14, Chris Baltimore, “FEATURE-Oil dollars help Houston dodge U.S. economic woes”, in Reuters:
1 more example
- "To me, Pusher Street is actually the least unique, right? It is what I associate with violence, gangs, murder, threats, and everything which are actually antonyms to what Christiania is," said Mathilde Brandstrup, a Christiania local.2024 April 6, Isabelle Yr Carlsson, “Denmark shuts down cannabis street in Christiania hippie enclave”, in Reuters:
- Derived terms
- antonymic, antonymize, antonymous, antonymy, autantonym, autoantonym, binary antonym, complementary antonym, contradictory antonym, converse antonym, gradable antonym, polar antonym, relational antonym, self-antonym
- Related terms
- Wiktionary:Semantic relations