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English Synonyms and Antonyms

<h3>ALARM.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>affright,</td><td>disquietude,</td><td>fright,</td><td>solicitude,</td></tr> <tr><td>apprehension,</td><td>dread,</td><td>misgiving,</td><td>terror,</td></tr> <tr><td>consternation,</td><td>fear,</td><td>panic,</td><td>timidity.</td></tr> <tr><td colspan="4">dismay,</td></tr> </table> Alarm, according to its derivation all'arme, "to arms," is an arousing to meet and repel danger, and may be quite consistent with true courage. Affright and fright express sudden fear which, for the time at least, overwhelms courage. The sentinel discovers with alarm the sudden approach of the enemy; the unarmed villagers view it with affright. Apprehension, disquietude, dread, misgiving, and solicitude are in anticipation of danger; consternation, dismay, and terror are overwhelming fear, generally in the actual presence of that which is terrible, though these words also may have an anticipative force. Timidity is a quality, habit, or condition, a readiness to be affected with fear. A person of great timidity is constantly liable to needless alarm and even terror. Compare FEAR. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>assurance,</td><td>calmness,</td><td>confidence,</td><td>repose,</td><td>security.</td></tr> </table> <h4>Prepositions:</h4> Alarm was felt in the camp, among the soldiers, at the news. <hr /> <h3>ALERT.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>active,</td><td>lively,</td><td>prepared,</td><td>vigilant,</td></tr> <tr><td>brisk,</td><td>nimble,</td><td>prompt,</td><td>watchful,</td></tr> <tr><td>hustling,</td><td>on the watch,</td><td>ready,</td><td>wide-awake.</td></tr> </table> Alert, ready, and wide-awake refer to a watchful promptness for action. Ready suggests thoughtful preparation; the wandering Indian is alert, the trained soldier is ready. Ready expresses more life and vigor than prepared. The gun is prepared; the man is ready. Prompt expresses readiness for appointment or demand at the required moment. The good general is ready for emergencies, alert to perceive opportunity or peril, prompt to seize occasion. The sense of brisk, nimble is the secondary and now less common signification of alert. Compare ACTIVE; ALIVE; NIMBLE; VIGILANT. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>drowsy,</td><td>dull,</td><td>heavy,</td><td>inactive,</td><td>slow,</td><td>sluggish,</td><td>stupid.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>ALIEN, a.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>conflicting,</td><td>distant,</td><td>inappropriate,</td><td>strange,</td></tr> <tr><td>contradictory,</td><td>foreign,</td><td>irrelevant,</td><td>unconnected,</td></tr> <tr><td>contrary,</td><td>hostile,</td><td>opposed,</td><td>unlike.</td></tr> <tr><td>contrasted,</td><td>impertinent,</td><td colspan="2">remote,</td></tr> </table> Foreign refers to difference of birth, alien to difference of allegiance. In their figurative use, that is foreign which is remote, unlike, or unconnected; that is alien which is conflicting, hostile, or opposed. Impertinent and irrelevant matters can not claim consideration in a certain connection; inappropriate matters could not properly be considered. Compare ALIEN, n.; CONTRAST, v. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>akin,</td><td>apropos,</td><td>germane,</td><td>proper,</td></tr> <tr><td>appropriate,</td><td>essential,</td><td>pertinent,</td><td>relevant.</td></tr> </table> <h4>Prepositions:</h4> Such a purpose was alien to (or from) my thought: to preferable. <hr /> <h3>ALIEN, n.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>foreigner,</td><td>stranger.</td></tr> </table> A naturalized citizen is not an alien, though a foreigner by birth, and perhaps a stranger in the place where he resides. A person of foreign birth not naturalized is an alien, though he may have been resident in the country a large part of a lifetime, and ceased to be a stranger to its people or institutions. He is an alien in one country if his allegiance is to another. The people of any country still residing in their own land are, strictly speaking, foreigners to the people of all other countries, rather than aliens; but alien and foreigner are often used synonymously. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>citizen,</td><td>fellow-countryman,</td><td>native-born inhabitant,</td></tr> <tr><td>countryman,</td><td>native,</td><td>naturalized person.</td></tr> </table> <h4>Prepositions:</h4> Aliens to (more rarely from) our nation and laws; aliens in our land, among our people. <hr /> <h3>ALIKE.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>akin,</td><td>equivalent,</td><td>kindred,</td><td>same,</td></tr> <tr><td>analogous,</td><td>homogeneous,</td><td>like,</td><td>similar,</td></tr> <tr><td>equal,</td><td>identical,</td><td>resembling,</td><td>uniform.</td></tr> </table> Alike is a comprehensive word, signifying as applied to two or more objects that some or all qualities of one are the same as those of the other or others; by modifiers alike may be made to express more or less resemblance; as, these houses are somewhat (i. e., partially) alike; or, these houses are exactly (i. e., in all respects) alike. Cotton and wool are alike in this, that they can both be woven into cloth. Substances are homogeneous which are made up of elements of the same kind, or which are the same in structure. Two pieces of iron may be homogeneous in material, while not alike in size or shape. In geometry, two triangles are equal when they can be laid over one another, and fit, line for line and angle for angle; they are equivalent when they simply contain the same amount of space. An identical proposition is one that says the same thing precisely in subject and predicate. Similar refers to close resemblance, which yet leaves room for question or denial of complete likeness or identity. To say "this is the identical man," is to say not merely that he is similar to the one I have in mind, but that he is the very same person. Things are analogous when they are similar in idea, plan, use, or character, tho perhaps quite unlike in appearance; as, the gills of fishes are said to be analogous to the lungs in terrestrial animals. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>different,</td><td>dissimilar,</td><td>distinct,</td><td>heterogeneous,</td><td>unlike.</td></tr> </table> <h4>Prepositions:</h4> The specimens are alike in kind; they are all alike to me. <hr /> <h3>ALIVE.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>active,</td><td>breathing,</td><td>live,</td><td>quick,</td></tr> <tr><td>alert,</td><td>brisk,</td><td>lively,</td><td>subsisting,</td></tr> <tr><td>animate,</td><td>existent,</td><td>living,</td><td>vivacious.</td></tr> <tr><td>animated,</td><td colspan="3">existing,</td></tr> </table> Alive applies to all degrees of life, from that which shows one to be barely existing or existent as a living thing, as when we say he is just alive, to that which implies the very utmost of vitality and power, as in the words "he is all alive," "thoroughly alive." So the word quick, which began by signifying "having life," is now mostly applied to energy of life as shown in swiftness of action. Breathing is capable of like contrast. We say of a dying man, he is still breathing; or we speak of a breathing statue, or "breathing and sounding, beauteous battle," Tennyson Princess can. v, l. 155, where it means having, or seeming to have, full and vigorous breath, abundant life. Compare ACTIVE; ALERT; NIMBLE. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>dead,</td><td>defunct,</td><td>dull,</td><td>lifeless,</td></tr> <tr><td>deceased,</td><td>dispirited,</td><td>inanimate,</td><td>spiritless.</td></tr> </table> <h4>Prepositions:</h4> Alive in every nerve; alive to every noble impulse; alive with fervor, hope, resolve; alive through all his being. <hr /> <h3>ALLAY.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>alleviate,</td><td>compose,</td><td>quiet,</td><td>still,</td></tr> <tr><td>appease,</td><td>mollify,</td><td>soothe,</td><td>tranquilize.</td></tr> <tr><td>calm,</td><td colspan="3">pacify,</td></tr> </table> Allay and alleviate are closely kindred in signification, and have been often interchanged in usage. But, in strictness, to allay is to lay to rest, quiet or soothe that which is excited; to alleviate, on the other hand, is to lighten a burden. We allay suffering by using means to soothe and tranquilize the sufferer; we alleviate suffering by doing something toward removal of the cause, so that there is less to suffer; where the trouble is wholly or chiefly in the excitement, to allay the excitement is virtually to remove the trouble; as, to allay rage or panic; we alleviate poverty, but do not allay it. Pacify, directly from the Latin, and appease, from the Latin through the French, signify to bring to peace; to mollify is to soften; to calm, quiet, or tranquilize is to make still; compose, to place together, unite, adjust to a calm and settled condition; to soothe (originally to assent to, humor) is to bring to pleased quietude. We allay excitement, appease a tumult, calm agitation, compose our feelings or countenance, pacify the quarrelsome, quiet the boisterous or clamorous, soothe grief or distress. Compare ALLEVIATE. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>agitate,</td><td>excite,</td><td>kindle,</td><td>rouse,</td><td>stir up.</td></tr> <tr><td>arouse,</td><td>fan,</td><td>provoke,</td><td colspan="2">stir,</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>ALLEGE.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>adduce,</td><td>asseverate,</td><td>claim,</td><td>maintain,</td><td>produce,</td></tr> <tr><td>advance,</td><td>assign,</td><td>declare,</td><td>offer,</td><td>say,</td></tr> <tr><td>affirm,</td><td>aver,</td><td>introduce,</td><td>plead,</td><td>state.</td></tr> <tr><td>assert,</td><td colspan="4">cite,</td></tr> </table> To allege is formally to state as true or capable of proof, but without proving. To adduce, literally to lead to, is to bring the evidence up to what has been alleged. Adduce is a secondary word; nothing can be adduced in evidence till something has been stated or alleged, which the evidence is to sustain. An alleged fact stands open to question or doubt. To speak of an alleged document, an alleged will, an alleged crime, is either to question, or at least very carefully to refrain from admitting, that the document exists, that the will is genuine, or that the crime has been committed. Alleged is, however, respectful; to speak of the "so-called" will or deed, etc., would be to cast discredit upon the document, and imply that the speaker was ready to brand it as unquestionably spurious; alleged simply concedes nothing and leaves the question open. To produce is to bring forward, as, for instance, papers or persons. Adduce is not used of persons; of them we say introduce or produce. When an alleged criminal is brought to trial, the counsel on either side are accustomed to advance a theory, and adduce the strongest possible evidence in its support; they will produce documents and witnesses, cite precedents, assign reasons, introduce suggestions, offer pleas. The accused will usually assert his innocence. Compare STATE. <hr /> <h3>ALLEGIANCE.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>devotion,</td><td>fealty,</td><td rowspan="2">loyalty,</td><td rowspan="2">obedience,</td><td rowspan="2">subjection.</td></tr> <tr><td>faithfulness,</td><td>homage,</td></tr> </table> Allegiance is the obligation of fidelity and obedience that an individual owes to his government or sovereign, in return for the protection he receives. The feudal uses of these words have mostly passed away with the state of society that gave them birth; but their origin still colors their present meaning. A patriotic American feels an enthusiastic loyalty to the republic; he takes, on occasion, an oath of allegiance to the government, but his loyalty will lead him to do more than mere allegiance could demand; he pays homage to God alone, as the only king and lord, or to those principles of right that are spiritually supreme; he acknowledges the duty of obedience to all rightful authority; he resents the idea of subjection. Fealty is becoming somewhat rare, except in elevated or poetic style. We prefer to speak of the faithfulness rather than the fealty of citizen, wife, or friend. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>disaffection,</td><td>disloyalty,</td><td>rebellion,</td><td>sedition,</td><td>treason.</td></tr> </table> <h4>Prepositions:</h4> We honor the allegiance of the citizen to the government; the government has a right to allegiance from the citizen. <hr /> <h3>ALLEGORY.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>fable,</td><td>fiction,</td><td>illustration,</td><td>metaphor,</td><td>parable,</td><td>simile.</td></tr> </table> In modern usage we may say that an allegory is an extended simile, while a metaphor is an abbreviated simile contained often in a phrase, perhaps in a word. The simile carries its comparison on the surface, in the words as, like, or similar expressions; the metaphor is given directly without any note of comparison. The allegory, parable, or fable tells its story as if true, leaving the reader or hearer to discover its fictitious character and learn its lesson. All these are, in strict definition, fictions; but the word fiction is now applied almost exclusively to novels or romances. An allegory is a moral or religious tale, of which the moral lesson is the substance, and all descriptions and incidents but accessories, as in "The Pilgrim's Progress." A fable is generally briefer, representing animals as the speakers and actors, and commonly conveying some lesson of practical wisdom or shrewdness, as "The Fables of Æsop." A parable is exclusively moral or religious, briefer and less adorned than an allegory, with its lesson more immediately discernible, given, as it were, at a stroke. Any comparison, analogy, instance, example, tale, anecdote, or the like which serves to let in light upon a subject may be called an illustration, this word in its widest use including all the rest. Compare FICTION; STORY. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>chronicle,</td><td>fact,</td><td>history,</td><td>narrative,</td><td>record.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>ALLEVIATE.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>abate,</td><td>lighten,</td><td>reduce,</td><td>remove,</td></tr> <tr><td>assuage,</td><td>mitigate,</td><td>relieve,</td><td>soften.</td></tr> <tr><td>lessen,</td><td colspan="3">moderate,</td></tr> </table> Etymologically, to alleviate is to lift a burden toward oneself, and so lighten it for the bearer; to relieve is to lift it back from the bearer, nearly or quite away; to remove is to take it away altogether. Alleviate is thus less than relieve; relieve, ordinarily, less than remove. We alleviate, relieve or remove the trouble; we relieve, not alleviate, the sufferer. Assuage is, by derivation, to sweeten; mitigate, to make mild; moderate, to bring within measure; abate, to beat down, and so make less. We abate a fever; lessen anxiety; moderate passions or desires; lighten burdens; mitigate or alleviate pain; reduce inflammation; soften, assuage, or moderate grief; we lighten or mitigate punishments; we relieve any suffering of body or mind that admits of help, comfort, or remedy. Alleviate has been often confused with allay. Compare ALLAY. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>aggravate,</td><td>embitter,</td><td>heighten,</td><td>intensify,</td><td rowspan="2">make worse.</td></tr> <tr><td>augment,</td><td>enhance,</td><td>increase,</td><td>magnify,</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>ALLIANCE.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>coalition,</td><td>confederation,</td><td>fusion,</td><td>partnership,</td></tr> <tr><td>compact,</td><td rowspan="2">federation,</td><td rowspan="2">league,</td><td rowspan="2">union.</td></tr> <tr><td>confederacy,</td></tr> </table> Alliance is in its most common use a connection formed by treaty between sovereign states as for mutual aid in war. Partnership is a mercantile word; alliance chiefly political or matrimonial. Coalition is oftenest used of political parties; fusion is now the more common word in this sense. In an alliance between nations there is no surrender of sovereignty, and no union except for a specified time and purpose. League and alliance are used with scarcely perceptible difference of meaning. In a confederacy or confederation there is an attempt to unite separate states in a general government without surrender of sovereignty. Union implies so much concession as to make the separate states substantially one. Federation is mainly a poetic and rhetorical word expressing something of the same thought, as in Tennyson's "federation of the world," Locksley Hall, l. 128. The United States is not a confederacy nor an alliance; the nation might be called a federation, but prefers to be styled a federal union. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>antagonism,</td><td>disunion,</td><td>enmity,</td><td>schism,</td><td>separation,</td></tr> <tr><td>discord,</td><td>divorce,</td><td>hostility,</td><td>secession,</td><td>war.</td></tr> </table> <h4>Prepositions:</h4> Alliance with a neighboring people; against the common enemy; for offense and defense; alliance of, between, or among nations. <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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