English Synonyms and Antonyms - James Champlin Fernald (christmas read aloud TXT) 📗

Where the dying night-lamp flickers.

Tennyson Locksley Hall st. 40.

An echo, a strain of music, a tempest, a topic, an issue, dies. Expire (literally, to breathe out) is a softer word for die; it is used figuratively of things that cease to exist by reaching a natural limit; as, a lease expires; the time has expired. To perish (literally, in Latin, to go through, as in English we say, "the fire goes out") is oftenest used of death by privation or exposure; as, "I perish with hunger," Luke xv, 17; sometimes, of death by violence. Knowledge and fame, art and empires, may be said to perish; the word denotes utter destruction and decay.

Antonyms: be born, come into being, flourish, rise again, begin, come to life, grow, rise from the dead, be immortal, exist, live, survive. Prepositions:

To die of fever; by violence; rarely, with the sword, famine, etc. (Ezek. vii, 15); to die for one's country; to die at sea; in one's bed; in agony; die to the world.

DIFFERENCE. Synonyms: contrariety, discrimination, distinction, inequality, contrast, disparity, divergence, unlikeness, disagreement, dissimilarity, diversity, variation, discrepancy, dissimilitude, inconsistency, variety.

Difference is the state or quality of being unlike or the amount of such unlikeness. A difference is in the things compared; a discrimination is in our judgment of them; a distinction is in our definition or description or mental image of them. Careful discrimination of real differences results in clear distinctions. Disparity is stronger than inequality, implying that one thing falls far below another; as, the disparity of our achievements when compared with our ideals. Dissimilarity is between things sharply contrasted; there may be a difference between those almost alike. There is a discrepancy in accounts that fail to balance. Variety involves more than two objects; so, in general, does diversity; variation is a difference in the condition or action of the same object at different times. Disagreement is not merely the lack, but the opposite, of agreement; it is a mild word for opposition and conflict; difference is sometimes used in the same sense.

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Antonyms: agreement, harmony, likeness, sameness, uniformity, consonance, identity, resemblance, similarity, unity. Prepositions:

Difference between the old and the new; differences among men; a difference in character; of action; of style; (less frequently) a difference (controversy) with a person; a difference of one thing from (incorrectly to) another.

DIFFICULT. Synonyms: arduous, hard, onerous, toilsome, exhausting, laborious, severe, trying.

Arduous (L. arduus, steep) signifies primarily so steep and lofty as to be difficult of ascent, and hence applies to that which involves great and sustained exertion and ordinarily for a lofty aim; great learning can only be won by arduous toil. Hard applies to anything that resists our endeavors as a scarcely penetrable mass resists our physical force. Anything is hard that involves tax and strain whether of the physical or mental powers. Difficult is not used of that which merely taxes physical force; a dead lift is called hard rather than difficult; breaking stone on the road would be called hard rather than difficult work; that is difficult which involves skill, sagacity, or address, with or without a considerable expenditure of physical force; a geometrical problem may be difficult to solve, a tangled skein to unravel; a mountain difficult to ascend. Hard may be active or passive; a thing may be hard to do or hard to bear. Arduous is always active. That which is laborious or toilsome simply requires the steady application of labor or toil till accomplished; toilsome is the stronger word. That which is onerous (L. onus, a burden) is mentally burdensome or oppressive. Responsibility may be onerous even when it involves no special exertion.

Antonyms: easy, facile, light, pleasant, slight, trifling, trivial. DIRECTION. Synonyms: aim, bearing, course, inclination, tendency, way.

The direction of an object is the line of motion or of vision toward it, or the line in which the object is moving, considered from our own actual or mental standpoint. Way, literally the road or path, comes naturally to mean the direction of the road or path;[133] conversationally, way is almost a perfect synonym of direction; as, which way did he go? or, in which direction? Bearing is the direction in which an object is seen with reference to another, and especially with reference to the points of the compass. Course is the direction of a moving object; inclination, that toward which a stationary object leans; tendency, the direction toward which anything stretches or reaches out; tendency is stronger and more active than inclination. Compare AIM; CARE; ORDER; OVERSIGHT.

DISCERN. Synonyms: behold, discriminate, observe, recognize, descry, distinguish, perceive, see.

What we discern we see apart from all other objects; what we discriminate we judge apart; what we distinguish we mark apart, or recognize by some special mark or manifest difference. We discriminate by real differences; we distinguish by outward signs; an officer is readily distinguished from a common soldier by his uniform. Objects may be dimly discerned at twilight, when yet we can not clearly distinguish one from another. We descry (originally espy) what is difficult to discover. Compare DISCOVER; LOOK.

DISCOVER. Synonyms: ascertain, detect, disclose, ferret out, find out, descry, discern, expose, find, invent.

Of human actions or character, detect is used, almost without exception, in a bad sense; discover may be used in either the good or the bad sense, oftener in the good; he was detected in a fraud; real merit is sure to be discovered. In scientific language, detect is used of delicate indications that appear in course of careful watching; as, a slight fluttering of the pulse could be detected. We discover what has existed but has not been known to us; we invent combinations or arrangements not before in use; Columbus discovered America; Morse invented the electric telegraph. Find is the most general word for every means of coming to know what was not before certainly known. A man finds in the road some stranger's purse, or finds his own which he is searching for. The expert discovers or detects an error in an account; the auditor finds the account to be correct. Compare DISCERN.

Antonyms:

See synonyms for HIDE.

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DISEASE. Synonyms: affection, disorder, indisposition, sickness, ailment, distemper, infirmity, unhealthiness, complaint, illness, malady, unsoundness.

Disease is the general term for any deviation from health; in a more limited sense it denotes some definite morbid condition; disorder and affection are rather partial and limited; as, a nervous affection; a disorder of the digestive system. Sickness was generally used in English speech and literature, till the close of the eighteenth century at least, for every form of physical disorder, as abundantly appears in the English Bible: "Jesus went about ... healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people," Matt. iv, 23; "Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died," 2 Kings xiii, 14. There is now, in England, a tendency to restrict the words sick and sickness to nausea, or "sickness at the stomach," and to hold ill and illness as the only proper words to use in a general sense. This distinction has received but a very limited acceptance in the United States, where sick and sickness have the earlier and wider usage. We speak of trifling ailments, a slight indisposition, a serious or a deadly disease; a slight or severe illness; a painful sickness. Complaint is a popular term, which may be applied to any degree of ill health, slight or severe. Infirmity denotes a chronic or lingering weakness or disability, as blindness or lameness.

Antonyms: health, robustness, soundness, strength, sturdiness, vigor. DISPARAGE. Synonyms: belittle, depreciate, discredit, underestimate, carp at, derogate from, dishonor, underrate, decry, detract from, lower, undervalue.

To decry is to cry down, in some noisy, public, or conspicuous manner. A witness or a statement is discredited; the currency is depreciated; a good name is dishonored by unworthy conduct; we underestimate in our own minds; we may underrate or undervalue in statement to others. These words are used, with few exceptions, of things such as qualities, merits, attainments, etc. To disparage is to belittle by damaging comparison or suggestion; it is used only of things. A man's achievements are disparaged, his motives depreciated, his professions discredited; he himself is calumniated, slandered, etc. Compare SLANDER.

Antonyms:

See synonyms for PRAISE.

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DISPLACE. Synonyms: confuse, derange, disturb, mislay, remove, crowd out, disarrange, jumble, misplace, unsettle.

Objects are displaced when moved out of the place they have occupied; they are misplaced when put into a place where they should not be. One may know where to find what he has misplaced; what he has mislaid he can not locate.

Antonyms: adjust, assort, dispose, order, put in order, set in order, array, classify, group, place, put in place, sort. DO. Synonyms: accomplish, carry out, discharge, perform, achieve, carry through, effect, perpetrate, actualize, commit, execute, realize, bring about, complete, finish, transact, bring to pass, consummate, fulfil, work out.

Do is the one comprehensive word which includes this whole class. We may say of the least item of daily work, "It is done," and of the grandest human achievement, "Well done!" Finish and complete signify to bring to an end what was previously begun; there is frequently the difference in usage that finish is applied to the fine details and is superficial, while complete is comprehensive, being applied to the whole ideal, plan, and execution; as, to finish a statue; to complete a scheme of philosophy. To discharge is to do what is given in charge, expected, or required; as, to discharge the duties of the office. To fulfil is to do or to be what has been promised, expected, hoped, or desired; as, a son fulfils a father's hopes. Realize, effect, execute, and consummate all signify to embody in fact what was before in thought. One may realize that which he has done nothing to bring about; he may realize the dreams of youth by inheriting a fortune; but he can not effect his early designs except by doing the utmost that is necessary to make them fact. Effect includes all that is done to accomplish the intent; execute refers rather to the final steps; consummate is limited quite sharply to the concluding act. An officer executes the law when he proceeds against its violators; a purchase is consummated when the money is paid and the property delivered. Execute refers more commonly to the commands of another, effect and consummate to one's own designs; as, the commander effected the capture of the fort, because his officers and men promptly executed his commands. Achieve—to do something worthy of a chief—signifies[136] always to perform some great and generally some worthy exploit. Perform and accomplish both imply working toward the end; but perform always allows a possibility of not attaining, while accomplish carries the thought of full completion. In Longfellow's lines, "Patience; accomplish thy labor," etc., perform could not be substituted without great loss. As between complete and accomplish, complete considers rather the thing as done; accomplish, the whole process of doing it. Commit, as applied to actions, is used only of those that are bad, whether grave or trivial; perpetrate is used chiefly of aggravated crimes or, somewhat humorously, of blunders. A man may commit a sin, a trespass, or a murder; perpetrate an outrage or a felony. We finish a garment or a letter, complete an edifice or a life-work, consummate a bargain or a crime, discharge a duty, effect a purpose, execute a command, fulfil a promise, perform our daily tasks, realize an ideal, accomplish a design, achieve a victory. Compare TRANSACT; TRANSACTION.

Antonyms: baffle, defeat, fail, mar, miss, ruin, come short, destroy, frustrate, miscarry, neglect, spoil. DOCILE. Synonyms: amenable, manageable, pliant, teachable, compliant, obedient, submissive, tractable, gentle, pliable, tame, yielding.

One who is docile is easily taught; one who is tractable is easily led; one who is pliant is easily bent in any direction; compliant represents one as inclined or persuaded to agreement with another's will. Compare DUTY.

Antonyms: determined, firm, intractable, opinionated, self-willed, wilful, dogged, inflexible, obstinate, resolute, stubborn, unyielding. DOCTRINE. Synonyms: article of belief, belief, precept, teaching, article of faith, dogma, principle, tenet.

Doctrine primarily signifies that which is taught; principle, the fundamental basis on which the teaching rests. A doctrine is reasoned out, and may be