Okuzeka
Linguistics & Grammar vocabulary · Semantics and Pragmatics

Antonym

Meaning in linguistics & grammar, with examples

/ˈæntənɪm/nounCore term

In linguistics & grammar, antonym means: A word that means the opposite of another word, such as hot and cold, buy and sell, or alive and dead.

In Turkish: zıt anlamlı sözcük, karşıt anlamlı sözcük

How it is used

Linguists distinguish gradable antonyms (hot and cold, with warm in between), complementary antonyms (alive and dead) and converse pairs (buy and sell). Teachers use antonyms to build vocabulary and in exam tasks.

Example sentences

  1. 'Cheap' and 'expensive' are gradable antonyms, because something can be fairly cheap or very expensive.

  2. What is the antonym of 'increase' in this graph description?

Common collocations

  • gradable antonym
  • complementary antonym
  • antonym of
  • synonyms and antonyms
  • synonymA word or phrase that means the same or nearly the same as another one in at least some contexts, such as big and large, or start and begin.
  • semanticsThe study of meaning in language: what words, phrases and sentences mean, and how their meanings relate to each other and to the world.
  • polysemyThe situation in which one word has several related meanings, such as 'head' meaning a part of the body, the leader of a group or the top of a page.
  • prefixA letter or group of letters added to the beginning of a word to make a new word with a different meaning, such as un- in unhappy or re- in rewrite.

More terms: Semantics and Pragmatics

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: