antonym

American  

[an-tuh-nim] / ˈæn tə nɪm /

noun

1. a word opposite in meaning to another. Fast is an antonym of slow.

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antonym British  

/ ænˈtɒnɪməs, ˈæntənɪm /

noun

1. a word that means the opposite of another word

   ``empty'' is an antonym of ``full''

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Usage

What is an antonym? An antonym is a word that has the opposite meaning of another word. For example, the word small means of limited size, while big means of large size. Happy, a feeling of gladness, is an antonym of sad, a feeling of sorrow. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs can all have antonyms, though not all do. A word can also have multiple antonyms. For example, the words fast, quick, speedy, swift, and rapid are all antonyms of the word slow. Even antonym has an antonym! The opposite of antonym is synonym, which is a word that has the same meaning as another word. For example, a synonym of the word fast would be quick—both describe something that moves with speed. If you are looking for some spicy new antonyms to use in your writing, you can find them using Thesaurus.com.

Other Word Forms

• antonymic
  adjective
• antonymous
  adjective
• antonymy
  noun

Etymology

Origin of antonym

First recorded in 1865–70; ant- + (syn)onym

Compare meaning

How does antonym compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• synonym vs. antonym

Explanation

A word that has the exact opposite meaning of another word is its antonym. Life is full of antonyms, from the "stop" and "go" of a traffic signal to side-by-side restroom doors labeled "men" and "women." Most antonyms are pretty obvious, like "good" and "bad," or "black" and "white." Some words can be transformed into their antonyms simply by adding the prefixes "un," "in," or "non," as when "likable" is changed into its antonym, "unlikable." The word antonym itself takes the Greek word anti, meaning "opposite," and adds it to -onym, which comes from the Greek onoma, or "name." So antonym literally means "opposite-name."

Example Sentences

But the wider world has also noticed and sites like XLR8R, Truants and Disco Naïveté have posted about his music since appearing with the downtempo Antonym EP in December 2011.

From The Guardian • Jun. 13, 2012

Antonym, ant′ō-nim, n. a word which is the opposite of another.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

Also, the so-called Antonym Test, where one is asked to give as quickly as possible the opposite to a word, the result, considering his foreign education, was decidedly good.

From Pathology of Lying, accusation, and swindling: a study in forensic psychology by Healy, William

Antonym of Bohr bug; see also mandelbug, schroedinbug.

From The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Steele, Guy L.