SYNONYM • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Synonym

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/sˈɪnənˌɪm/ Listen

noun

Synonym n. (pl. synonyms)

One of two or more words (commonly words of the same language) which are equivalents of each other; one of two or more words which have very nearly the same signification, and therefore may often be used interchangeably. See under Synonymous. (Written also synonyme) "All languages tend to clear themselves of synonyms as intellectual culture advances, the superfluous words being taken up and appropriated by new shades and combinations of thought evolved in the progress of society." "His name has thus become, throughout all civilized countries, a synonym for probity and philanthropy." "In popular literary acceptation, and as employed in special dictionaries of such words, synonyms are words sufficiently alike in general signification to be liable to be confounded, but yet so different in special definition as to require to be distinguished."

An incorrect or incorrectly applied scientific name, as a new name applied to a species or genus already properly named, or a specific name preoccupied by that of another species of the same genus; so used in the system of nomenclature (which see) in which the correct scientific names of certain natural groups (usually genera, species, and subspecies) are regarded as determined by priority.

One of two or more words corresponding in meaning but of different languages; a heteronym. (Rare)

See images of 'Synonym'

Etymology of 'Synonym'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Synonym" Quotes from Famous Books

... used in the modifying sense, nor as a synonym for very in such phrases as "pretty good," "pretty ...

— Word Study and English Grammar - A Primer of Information about Words, Their Relations and Their Uses • Frederick W. Hamilton

... synonym of whist played in defiance of certain time- honoured conventions and principles. Ajax said with reason that Johnnie Kapus, the nephew of our neighbour, old man Kapus, played the game of life in such a sorry, blundering fashion that he marvelled why his uncle gave him ...

— Bunch Grass - A Chronicle of Life on a Cattle Ranch • Horace Annesley Vachell

... name was a synonym for a relentless sort of energy in railroad construction that refused to consider obstacles. Nothing could stand in his way. The thing behind which he put the weight of his determination simply had to move in one direction or other. The contractor that failed ...

— The Doctor - A Tale Of The Rockies • Ralph Connor

... state of lighthearted-and lightheadedness for which sober, literal, decorous English has no synonym. As we went, she danced and sang, and laughed out joyously at everything and at nothing, and talked the most fascinating nonsense—all in the role of "Cousin Burwell." She could imitate him to perfection; her strut and swagger and slang threw ...

— When Grandmamma Was New - The Story of a Virginia Childhood • Marion Harland

... accounts, Riccabocca was one of those cards in a sequence, which so calculating a player would not throw out of his hand: it might serve for repique, at the worst it might score well in the game. Intimacy with the Italian was still part and parcel in that knowledge which was the synonym of power. ...

— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

More quotes...