Concept
Synonym
Overview
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. 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, plesionyms, or poecilonyms.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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36, fig. 14), is quite different from the _B. sulcatus_ of Bruguière (_i. e._, _B. porcatus_ of the present work), as is at once obvious from the oblique summits of the radii. Lastly, _B. tesselatus_ of Sowerby is a synonym of _B. porcatus_, _sulcatus_, _costatus_, and _Lepas balanus_. _B. punctatus_ of Montagu is a synonym of _Chthamalus stellatus_, see remarks on that species: the name of _B. punctatus_ is often…
Charles Darwin, A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia
Names Synonym several times; opens on Synonym.
x. 11), i.e., I shall give him rule and dominion. In this same sense it is said of God, “who rideth (rokeb) upon the heaven in thy help” (Deut. xxxiii. 26), that is, who rules the heaven; and “Him that rideth (la-rokeb) upon the ʻarabot” (Ps. lxviii. 4), i.e., who rules the ʻarabot, the uppermost, all-encompassing sphere. It has also been repeatedly stated by our Sages that there are seven rekiʻim (firmaments…
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed
States what Synonym is; opens on Synonym.
We may also say that two relations are alike. The fact of resemblance between relations is sometimes called _analogy_, forming one of the numerous meanings of that word. The relation in which Priam stood to Hector, namely, that of father and son, resembles the relation in which Philip stood to Alexander; resembles it so closely that they are called the same relation. The relation in which Cromwell stood to England…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
States what Synonym is.
Related ideas
- Meta (prefix)
- Word
- Ancient Greek
- Latin
- Morpheme
- Orthography
- Oxford English Dictionary
- Pedagogy
- Part of speech
- Semantic field
- Connotation
- English language
- Etymology
Place in the tradition
Part of Philosophy of language.