Questions tagged [antonyms]
An antonym is a word with a meaning opposite to another word.
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Proper antonym of "body shaming"
"Body shaming" is being used since 1990s to refer to: the act of criticizing or humiliating someone based on their body shape, size, or physical appearance, which can be directed at another ...
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How much not harder
-You shouldn't try so hard.
-Well, dunno how much not harder I could.
The Mission/Beavis H. S3E9
Is this structure due to the lack of a clear antonym for (work) hard in this context?
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What is a word that describes a flower/petal that has bloomed and is now dying?
I want to describe the collecting of flowers when they are past their prime. That is, I want to encourage people to collect flower petals to press and dry when they are just starting to wilt and maybe ...
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An antonym to 'persistently' or 'permanently' for describing something that comes later in a period
Think of animals entering a farm, where they will stay for half a year or so. There is an infectious disease around.
Some animals are already infected upon entry, so they will be sick all the time ...
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What do you call it when you make satirical replacements of positive words for negative words starting with the same letter?
What do you call it when you make satirical replacements of positive words for negative words starting with the same letter?
Is there a term for this?
For example:
In Dead Poets Society (1989), the ...
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Why do "shameless" and "shameful" have overlapping meanings despite being opposites?
I’ve been struggling with this little problem for a while now, so I thought I’d share it to see what you guys think.
I have displayed the definitions of the two words in question below.
Oxford ...
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What is the antonym of "nuance"?
What I'm Searching For
I refer to the uncountable noun (as opposed to the colloquial verb). It refers to "subtle distinction", according to Merriam-Webster. That is how I utilize it.
Why
I ...
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What's the contrary of formation as in the opposite of the process of formation?
What is a better term to refer to the opposite movement of something forming? That would be the process of something already formed going "backwards". Is there a word more precise for this ...
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Why am I small? Why aren't I tall? [duplicate]
There's no distinct proper opposite here. We certainly wouldn't use 'Why are I not tall', but 'Why amn't I small' doesn't exist. There must be reasons.
There are a couple of similar questions, not ...
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What are the words that mean to make something (look) smaller?
There are plenty of words that means to make something (look) bigger, but I can't find their exact antonyms.
magnify - make something look bigger
enlarge - make something bigger
zoom in - move the ...
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Do linguists have a noun for referring to pieces of commendatory language, as a sort of antonym of 'pejoratives'?
As I understand it, linguists (and the rest of us) call pieces of derogatory or negatively-valenced language ‘pejoratives’. But is there a similar term for pieces of commendatory or positively-...
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Is there a specific term in English used to refer to two antonyms that are also synonyms of each other?
For example:
"Up" and "down" are definitely antonyms, but they can be used as synonyms like in these sentences
Are you up for a game night?
Are you down for a game night?
Or the ...
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Is symptotic the antonym of asymptotic in the context of computer science? [closed]
In computer science, asymptotic analysis1 is the study of the performance of an algorithm with respect to the size of the input as the input grows to infinity.
That is to say, it only analyses how ...
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What is a word or term to describe two things that are directly related in an opposite manner? [duplicate]
I’m looking for a word or term that describes two things that are directly related to eachother in an opposite manner. They go hand-in-hand but are not necessarily opposite in a dictionary, yet can be ...
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Is there a word that means the opposite of 'embarrassing'?
I have scoured every thesaurus I can find but cannot seem to find a (single) word that I can use to replace 'embarrasing' to signify the opposite of embarrassing (as opposed to the lack of ...
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Probable language misuse and antonyms?
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I started to feel like the language (or languages in general) are being misused.
We usually say something like: "not good", "not tall", "...
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Semantic Opposition of 'But': Are These Unlike Constituents Viable Opposites?
I have recently been researching the usage of the word 'But' with specific attention given to its function as a coordinating conjunction, wherein it is used to create contrast. Throughout my research, ...
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Looking for an opposite for the term 'tunnel vision'
What might be the opposite of tunnel vision? What I mean is instead of seeing only one's direct path, the person is so distracted by the texture of the sidelines, goes so far as to obscure the goal at ...
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Word for nonce antonyms formed by reversing idioms
Someone recently used "on-limits" to describe something that was allowed, i.e. not "off-limits." The same person subsequently described unplugging something as "plugging it ...
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Can last be a synonym for least?
My thought process is that I can be first among equals but can I also be last among equals and can this be extended to just be a general the best and the worst. That would mean I am the first and you ...
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Is there a term like "antonym" but for words of opposite sentiment?
I like to play a game where I take a descriptive word with an emotional bias (i.e. describing something "good" or "bad") and I try to think of a word with roughly the same meaning ...
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What is the city equivalent of 'hillbilly hell"?
As you may have already known, and for those of you who don't know, hillbilly hell is a term used to mock the countryside in the USA, with all of its perceived flaws (insular, racist, decaying ...). ...
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Term for words which can have the same or opposite meanings in same contexts [duplicate]
In Term for words which can have the same or opposite meanings in different contexts?,
hot and cool are opposite temperatures, but can also both be used to mean fashionably attractive/impressive.
I ...
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Is there a term for antonyms that are a small edit distance from each other?
I'm looking for examples of dramatic typos - where a minor edit can dramatically change the meaning of a phrase, and would like to know if there's a name for this phenomenon.
Paronyms are a similar ...
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Opposite of causality [closed]
Is there a word which describes the relationship between two things when one thing prevents the other? For example, to fill in the sentence "there is ___ between resistance and flow"?
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What is the word for lying on your stomach facing downwards, the opposite of 'supine'?
Today, l learned a new word 'supine'. It has multiple meanings, but I am asking about the opposite of the following meaning:
Lying on the back facing upwards.
In other words, what is the suitable ...
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Why use "modeless" as the opposite of "modal" in UI design? [closed]
"Modeless" is widely used which is not in the dictionary such as "Modal and Modeless Dialog Boxes". Why they do not use "modaless"?
If "Modal" is the adjective ...
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What is the word for a person or entity that has one or more avatars?
I am using the word 'avatar' in my work in the sense that an avatar is the physical representation of some higher entity. We could say that a particular person, animal or object is the avatar of a ...
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Antonym for “elitist” with a negative connotation?
I’m looking for an adjective to describe, for example, someone who shows disdain for elitism or fine things. Google only gives examples that have positive or neutral connotations.
EDIT:
I've accept ...
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What is the name for a group of words that share antonyms but do not necessarily equate?
An example of this would be the concepts of humility and shame, which are both antonyms of pride, but are not synonyms or necessarily the same. What is the word that describes words that have this ...
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Are these phrases antonyms? [closed]
"He showed little sign of hawkish attitude"
"He showed a little sign of hawkish attitude"
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What is the antonym of 'Capital' letters? [duplicate]
Like how the antonym of uppercase is lowercase, and of majuscule is minuscule, what is capital's own antonym?
Alternatively, if capital has no unique antonym of its own, how did it come to refer to ...
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Is there a female or gender neutral equivalent for the verb to sire?
Is there a good equivalent for to sire I could use for a woman who mothered a child? Obviously other than to mother itself.
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A word opposite of friend? Not "enemy"
I don't speak English natively, but I wanted to know if there is a word that can describe someone you dislike/hate without it sounding so harsh like the word enemy or rival.
Not an insult, either.
For ...
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Words attaining different meanings [duplicate]
If jail and prison are (at least nearly) synonymous, why does jailer refer to the captor, and prisoner refer to the captive? Are there similar examples?
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Is there an antonym for "trajectory"?
Trajectory is defined as:
the path followed by a projectile flying or an object moving under the action of given forces.
In game or software development, it's very common to visualize trajectory. ...
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Is there a dual to "non-sequitur"? [closed]
A non sequitur:
"a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement."
"A non sequitur is a conversational literary device, often used for ...
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what is the antonym of "DELETED" [closed]
Hello what would you propose to use as opposite(antonym) word for "DELETED"?
I was thinking of "ACTIVE"
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What's the opposite word for "Host"? [closed]
Not really opposite word but more like a corresponding word?
Teacher - Student
Doctor - Patient
Interviewer - Interviewee
Host - ??? (Guest? Hostee?)
I cannot find anything that feels right. Host ...
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Is Miracle An Antonym of Catastrophe? [duplicate]
In this post that I do not have sufficient reputation to comment on, @hyderallie28475 asks for antonyms of catastrophe, which they define as follows:
A word for a positive event with far reaching ...
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Is there such a thing as a "positive" antonym to catastrophe?
A catastrophe is an event causing great and usually sudden damage or suffering; It is negative in nature.
Is there a word which is antonymic to catastrophe, but positive/"good" in nature? I....
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Is there a word for fake or incorrect historical reproductions?
I could've sworn there was a specific word for the situation where someone in the present makes up some historical detail to appear authentic, manufactures an antique that is actually anachronistic ...
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A word that means the opposite of "shoehorned", something that fits its purpose well
I'm looking for a word that means the opposite of shoehorned, ie. something that DOES fit its purpose well.
shoehorn (v.) (transitive, figuratively) To force (something) into (a tight space); to ...
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What is the difference between antonyms and negations?
Merriam Webster defines antonyms as :
a word of opposite meaning.
However, I cannot understand what does opposite in the definition mean . Does it mean a negation ? For example, negation of to teach ...
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Approval Process feature best wording for approve and decline
I'm a UX designer but not an English native speaker. I'm working on a web interface where some item types required an approval from a 3rd party.
So when the user clicks on a button named 'Approval' he ...
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Antonym of 'Boolean'
A Boolean variable has either 0 or 1 as its value. (correct me if I'm wrong) If 'Boolean' is used as an adjective, it means, either that entity exists or does not exist (but no both). For example:
A ...
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Word for people who live outside the city
What word would one use that applies to all those living outside of cities - not just in the suburbs but also more isolated areas in the country?
I feel that the word 'citizen' implies living in a ...
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Why does 'luck out' have the completely opposite meaning to 'out of luck'?
How did this arise? Seems paradoxical.
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If someone instigates the end of a relationship, what is the term for the other party?
When discussing a person that has chosen to end a relationship, particularly a romantic or intimate one, I have chosen to use the word instigator. What is the complementary word that describes the ...
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What is a word for "the feeling of wanting something good for others"?
I'm looking for a word that is the inverse of envy, in which a person wants others to have something good that they don't have.
The definition of envy from Lexico:
A feeling of discontented or ...
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