Synonym, Antonym, & hyponym

Synonym, Antonym, & hyponym

Synonyms

Synonyms are words that have the same or very similar meaning. All words can have a synonym. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions can have a synonym as long as both words are the same part of speech.

Examples of Synonyms

Adjectives: beautiful, lovely, gorgeous, stunning, striking

Nouns: House, home, dwelling, residence, abode, quarters

Verbs: jump, bound, leap, hop, skip

Prepositions: in, inside, within

Antonyms

Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings. For example, the antonym of long is short. Often words will have more than one antonym but as with synonyms it depends on the context. For instance, the word warm could have the antonym cool or chilly. In order to choose the correct antonym, you have to look at all the meanings and how the word is used. Cool can mean stylish as well as chilly so the word cool may not be the best choice.

Types of Antonyms

1.      Graded antonyms are word pairs that have variations between the two opposites. For example, big and little are antonyms but there are a lot of changes before you get to the opposite meaning. Like this:

Big, huge, bulky, full-size, slight, petite, little Other examples are:

a.       Sane and crazy

b.      Rich and poor

c.       Cool and hot

d.      Wet and dry

e.       Late and early

f.       Ignorant and educated

2.      Relational antonyms are pairs that have a relationship. Each word wouldn’t exist without the other. There can’t be a parent without a child or it’s either all or nothing. Other examples include:

a.       Servant and master

b.      Borrow and lend

c.       Come and go

d.      Toward and away

e.       Divisor and dividend

f.       Parent and child

3.      Complimentary antonyms are word pairs that have no degree of meaning. There are only two opposite possibilities. Example  :

a.       Leave and arrive

b.      Pre and post

c.       Question and answer

d.      Single and married

e.       Hired and fired

f.       Brother and sister

g.      Before and after

4.      Adding a Prefix

Sometimes, an antonym can be easily made by adding a prefix.
Examples of antonyms that were made by adding the prefix “un” are:

a.        Likely and unlike

b.      Able and unable

By adding the prefix “non” you can make these pairs:

a.       Entity and nonentity

b.      Conformist and nonconformist

Lastly, adding the prefix “in” can make the following pairs:

a.       Tolerant and intolerant

b.      Decent and indecent

c.       Discreet and indiscreet

d.      Excusable and inexcusable

HYPONYM

Is the state or phenomenon that shows  the relationship  between more general term, ( lexical representation) and the more specific instances for it.

Examples:

The lexical representation of:
red, yellow, green, blue, purple, black is ( color ).
Thus we can say that: " red " is  a hyponym of " color " and so on.

Examples:

clarinet, guitar, piano, trumpet, violin, are hyponyms because they are " musical instruments " but there is not a single word meaning  " musical instrument " that has these  words as its hyponyms .