Synonym

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsɪnÉ™nɪm/

Origin

From Middle English sinonyme, from Latin synōnymum, from Ancient Greek συνώνυμον, neuter singular form of συνώνυμος (sunōnumos, "synonymous"), from σύν ("with") + ὄνομα ("name").

Full definition of synonym

Noun

1. (semantics, with respect to a given word or phrase) A word or phrase with a meaning that is the same as, or very similar to, another word or phrase."Happy" is a synonym of "glad".
• 1991, William T. Parry, Edward A. Hacker, Aristotelian Logic, The proportion of English words that have an exact synonym is small.
2. (zoology, with respect to a name for a given taxon) Any of the formal names for the taxon, including the valid name (i.e. the senior synonym).
3. (botany, with respect to a name for a given taxon) Any name for the taxon, usually a validly published, formally accepted one, but often also an unpublished name.
4. (databases) An alternative (often shorter) name defined for an object in a database.
• 2011, Paul Nielsen, Uttam Parui, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 BibleSynonyms are part of the SQL standard and are used frequently by Oracle DBAs. Note that Oracle includes both private and public synonyms.

Synonyms

• (word or phrase with same meaning as another) equivalent, poecilonym

Antonyms

• (word or phrase with same meaning as another) antonym, opposite

Derived terms

• near-synonym

Related terms

• synonymic
• synonymist
• synonymous
• synonymy