VOCAB - 5

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SYNONYM & ANTONYM :

Synonym (SINe-nim)
A synonym is a word or expression that has the same or almost the same meaning as another.

Synonym examples:

 awful / terrible
 big / large
 smart / clever
 photograph / picture

Word origin: Greek, syn = same, onyma = a name

Short list of synonyms in English, listed by the part of speech

Nouns

 belly / stomach
 children / kids
 disaster / catastrophe
 earth / soil
 father / dad
 happiness / joy
 instinct / intuition
 mother / mom
 present / gift
 sunrise / dawn

Verbs

 answer / reply
 beat / defeat
 behave / act
 begin / start
 close / shut
 leave / exit
 provide / supply
 select / choose
 shout / yell
 speak / talk

Adjectives

 big / large
 complete / total
 correct / right
 crazy / mad
 foolish / silly
 happy / glad
 hard / difficult
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SYNONYM & ANTONYM :

 ill / sick
 last / final
 near / close
 sad / unhappy
 stable / steady

Adverbs

 abroad / overseas
 almost / nearly
 badly / poorly
 fast / quickly
 intentionally / on purpose
 out / outside
 rarely / seldom
 sometimes / occasionally
 surely / for sure
 very / highly / extremely

Prepositions

 above / over
 about / regarding / concerning
 against / versus
 below / beneath / under
 by / via
 despite / in spite of
 in / into
 off / away
 until / till
 with / including

Conjunctions

 and / plus
 because / since
 but / yet
 if / provided
 once / as soon as

Interjections

 hello / hi
 gee / gosh
 goodness / goodness me / my goodness
 no / nope
 oh Lord / good Lord
 thanks / thank you
 whoopee / yahoo / hooray
 yes / yeah

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SYNONYM & ANTONYM :

Synonyms are not necessarily the same!

You see, they can be very similar, but they do not necessarily mean the same.

Here is a common example.

the following words are all synonyms. Their general meaning is "pleasant to look at."

There are however important nuances.

Look at the illustrations, read the definitions and see for yourself.

Pretty, beautiful, handsome... What's the difference?

Pretty Beautiful Handsome

Beautiful =
Pretty = Handsome =
(of a woman or
delicate and pleasant to look (of a man)
girl) extremely pleasant to
at. pleasant to look at.
look at.

Lovely Ravishing Good-looking

Lovely = Ravishing = Good-looking =

(of someone that makes you very beautiful. physically pleasant to look
have a strong feeling for them) at.
graceful and very pleasant to
look at.

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SYNONYM & ANTONYM :

Cute Adorable Gorgeous

Cute =
Adorable =
(of someone young or Gorgeous =
very pleasant to look at and
something small) impressive and extremely
very easy to love.
charming and pleasant to pleasant to look at.
look at.

Here is another example to illustrate this point:

"To ask" means to say or write what you wish to happen.

"To request" means to say or write what you wish to happen, but it has a formal use.

In other words, you would use "ask" and "request" in different situations and contexts.

So it's not enough just to study a word's meaning and synonyms. You should also be aware of the subtle
difference, nuances, and usage issues of each individual word.

Additional example:

One of the meanings of "hurt" is to "to be painful."

For example, "My back hurts like hell."

One synonym of "hurt" is "ache."

"To ache" means "to be painful, in a dull way." A dull pain means that it is not very strong, but it is
continuous.

For example, "I've been standing for so long that now my feet ache."

So you see, "hurt" and "ache" are synonyms. Their meanings are indeed very similar, but not identical.

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SYNONYM & ANTONYM :

ANTONYM (AN-ti-nim)
An antonym is a word having a meaning opposite to that of another word, such as hot and cold, short and
tall. An antonym is the antonym of synonym.

An antonym is a word having a meaning opposite to that of another word, such

as hot and cold, short and tall.

An antonym is the antonym of synonym.

Adjective: antonymous.

Another word for antonym is counterterm.

"Linguists identify three types of antonymy:

(1) Gradable antonyms,

which operate on a continuum: (very) big, (very) small. Such pairs often occur in binomial
phrases with and: (blow) hot and cold, (search) high and low.

(2) Complementary antonyms,

which express an either/or relationship: dead or alive, male or female.

(3) Converse or relational antonyms, expressing reciprocity :

borrow or lend, buy or sell, wife or husband."

An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word.

Antonym examples:

 old / new
 black / white
 strong / weak
 break / fix

Word origin: Greek, anti = opposite, onym = name

Short list of antonyms in English, listed by the part of speech

Nouns

 day / night
 east / west
 enemy / friend
 failure / success
 guest / host
 health / disease
 question / answer
 speaker / listener
 summer / winter
 top / bottom

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SYNONYM & ANTONYM :

Verbs

 agree / disagree
 arrive / leave
 begin / end
 fall asleep / wake up
 find / lose
 lend / borrow
 love / hate
 open / close
 remember / forget
 start / stop

Adjectives

 asleep / awake
 beautiful / ugly
 big / small
 black / white
 cheap / expensive
 dead / alive
 dry / wet
 easy / difficult
 full / empty
 good / bad
 hot / cold
 intelligent / stupid
 sad / happy
 sick / healthy
 thin / fat

Adverbs

 always / never
 angrily / happily
 fast / slowly
 here / there
 inside / outside
 likely / unlikely
 near / far
 partly / fully
 seemingly / actually
 yesterday / tomorrow

Prepositions

 above / below
 against / for
 before / after
 in / out
 like / unlike
 on / off
 plus / minus
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SYNONYM & ANTONYM :

 to / from
 towards / away
 with / without

Conjunctions

 and / or
 therefore / nevertheless

Interjections

 bravo / boo
 hello / goodbye
 holy cow / duh
 phew / oops
 thanks / no thanks
 yes / no
 yippee / oh my

TIPS TO CLEAR ANTONYM SYNONYM TEST

Watch out for tricky words

Antonym tests may have words that may appear to be related to another word, causing you to infer that
the meaning of both the words is similar. Words such as ‘passive’ might appear to be related to ‘pass’ or
‘passable’, and may mislead you into thinking that these convey the same meaning, which is not the case
here. Questions consisting of these tricky words appear frequently in antonyms tests. To master the same,
you should learn as many of these tricky words as possible. There are both online and offline sources
consisting of the commonly used tricky words and can be referred to and used by you for preparing for
the antonyms test.

Use Difficult Words in Sentences

If there is a word whose meaning is difficult to decipher, using the word in a few sentences may help
understand the meaning of the word or at least get closer to it. Repetitively using all the given choice
options of words in different sentences and reflecting on how they sound may give a vague idea of which
words appear to be the most and the least correct. This is usually a better method than outright guessing
and marking the answer. During preparation, you may practice and master the antonyms by finding their
meaning and trying to make sentences based on the meaning themselves without any help.

Avoid Answering Instinctively

While appearing for antonym tests, you may answer a question instantly without giving it a second
thought or going through it again. You may think that you have practiced that question numerous times
before and so the answer for it will be the same. These questions may appear to be quite simple and
familiar, but they may have a hidden context that you may not be able to grasp at your first reading
attempt.

Every question, no matter how easy or familiar it may look, should be read at least twice before
answering it. Reading and re-reading the questions can help you understand it comprehensively and find
out if there is any underlying meaning conveyed in the sentence that might have been overlooked in the
first time.

Eliminate Least Relevant Answers

While answering a question, you can arrive at the right answer by eliminating the least relevant answers
first. All the given answer choice should be analyzed by you to determine their respective antonyms. The
answers whose antonyms are uncertain or vague in the context of the question can be eliminated. This
can help narrow down the result and find a correct answer faster than usual.

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SYNONYM & ANTONYM :

Another elimination technique that may be used by you is finding synonyms in the answer choices. The
multiple answer options given might have words with the same meaning. Since there are two words that
can be used in the same situation, these will not be correct because the given question will only have a
unique answer. Therefore, the words that have a similar meaning can be eliminated.

Analyze Word Root and Determine Word Charge

Knowing the root of a word may help determine the meaning of the word. For example, the words
‘amicable’ and ‘amenable’ may have a meaning in the same context i.e. friendliness and openness.
Learning the most common root words by heart may help determine the meaning of any unfamiliar
words that you might encounter in the test.

A word that sounds or appears to be used in a positive context, is said to be positively charged and a
contrary context reflects a negatively charged word. The word “benevolent” has a positive charge and it
denotes goodness while the word “malicious” is negative and denotes hostility.

If a question has the word “unkind” which is also negatively charged, it cannot be the antonym of another
negatively charged word and hence the word “malicious” can be rejected, leaving the positively charged
word “benevolent” as the right answer.

Root words may also help determine the charge on a word. For example, the root word ‘mal’ is used in a
negative context, such as in ‘malnutrition’ and hence is negatively charged. All words that might begin
with ‘mal’, whether familiar or unfamiliar, will be negatively charged.

Increase Vocabulary
As antonym tests are mainly based on words, the performance will depend on your vocabulary. The more
words you know, the more will be your chances of getting a good score in the test. Therefore, you should
make efforts to learn new words and increase your knowledge base. Reading new books, especially fiction
and novels that are rich in new words may help you add words to your vocabulary. Reading is a better
approach than cramming words, as using words in sentences aids you understand their meaning as well
as the context of their usage. This can be quite helpful at the time of the test, as you may try to decipher
the meaning of words by making use of them in sentences.

Practice Regularly
The best way to pass a test and score well in it is regularly preparing and practicing for it. By reading texts
and trying to formulate sentences and speaking them out aloud, you can prepare yourself well for the
antonyms test. Regular practice can also help curb the instinctive answering tendencies of you.

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