Synonyms

Several words have nearly the same meaning. Words that have nearly the same meaning are called synonyms. It is important to distinguish between the slight differences in meaning of these words.

The words huge, big, large, vast, immense, and colossal are synonyms. Any of these words could be used to describe something that is not small, tiny, minute, or little.

Yet if you want to be precise, you cannot take one of these words out of a sentence and put another in its place without making the sentence less accurate.

If you said that the crowd at a football match was huge, you would probably mean that there were more people in it than in a big crowd.

Or again, one of the classrooms in your school or college may be larger than your kitchen at home, but to say that is colossal would be silly, for we use that over-worked adjective only to describe something so big as to be out of the ordinary.

In the same way tiny and minute are used to describe things which are very small and not merely not big.

The words work, toil, labor, and drudgery are synonyms, yet by toil we mean hard work, and by drudgery we mean work hard and dull as to be unpleasant.

You must , therefore, be able to distinguish shades of meaning in synonyms, and to know how one synonyms differs from another, so that when you want to use a word you can do so accurately.

Exercises

1.What are the differences in meaning between the words in the following groups.

Nouns
(a)way, route, path, road, direction.
(b)size, bulk, largeness, mass, magnitude.
(c)friend, companion, mate, colleague, neighbor, comrade.
(d)job, work, occupation, trade, employment, profession, business.
(e)vigor, force, energy, power, vitality, spirit, power, strength.
(f)news, tidings, message, report, communication, intelligence.
(g)walk, trip, migration, journey, tour, expedition, stroll, ride, excursion.
(h)wholesaler, seller, salesman, trader, dealer, merchant, retailer, shopkeeper.

Adjectives
(a)careful, alert, cautious, wary, vigilant, watchful
(b)aged, elderly, old, ancient, ripe, antique, timeworn, old-fashioned.
(c)true, real, faultless, exact, correct, accurate, precise, definite.
(d)clever, handy, dexterous, apt, skillful, expert.
(e)evident, obvious, plain, lucid, transparent, bright, clear.
(f)shadowy, dark, obscure, dusky, cloudy, unlit, murky, overcast.
(g)short, brief, concise, terse, compact, pithy, telegraphic.
(h)firm, tough, inflexible, stiff, hard, rigid, unyielding, impenetrable.
(i)peaceful, clam, moderate, smooth, soft, gentle, mild, sober, tranquil
(j)thin, lean, meagre, spare, slight, slim, fine, slender.

Verbs.
(a)begin, start, commence, initiate, undertake, inaugurate, originate.
(b)finish, end, complete, stop, achieve, conclude, close, terminate, discontinue.
(c)think, consider, contemplate, reflect, ponder, mediate, study, muse.
(d)build, make, compose, fashion, forge, fabricate, construct, manufacture, produce,
create.
(e)increase, enlarge, advance, magnify, extend, exaggerate, strengthen
(f)tell, say, speak, talk, utter, chatter, prattle, debate, converse, discuss,
narrate, recount.
(g)look, see, inspect, survey, discover, perceive, witness, visualize, envisage,
recognize, regard, behold
(h)hurry, quicken, rush, haste, speed, fly, accelerate, sprint, gallop.

2.Make up sentences to show that you know the difference between the synonyms in the following pairs:

whole, all; shrewd, clever;
assist, help; cruel, hard-heaarted;
destroy,demolish,plan,scheme;
irritate,annoy;spin, twist;
murder, execute;unique, rare.

3.Give synonyms, as many you can think of, for the following:

Nouns : fight, shout, anger, quarrel, delight, skill, mistake, untruth.
Adjectives: useful, calm, generous, old, easy, fat, big, beautiful.
Verbs : speak, need, talk, select, watch, make, trust, shake