Synonyms Words 1-10
This is a list of some selected words and how their synonyms differ in their meaning.
1
SYNONYMS: abolish, exterminate, extinguish, eradicate, obliterate. These verbs mean to get rid of.
Abolish applies only to doing away with conditions, practices, or regulations, not material things or persons: The legislature passed a law to abolish the surtax.
Exterminate suggests total destruction, as of living things, by a deliberate, selective method: People were exterminated in the concentration camps.
Extinguish means to put out a flame or something likened to a flame: Repeated rebuffs couldn't extinguish my enthusiasm.
Eradicate stresses the resistance to dislodging offered by the object: Scientists are working to find a serum to eradicate the disease.
Obliterate means to destroy so as to leave no trace: Amnesia mercifully obliterated his memory of the accident.
2
SYNONYMS: abuse, misuse, mistreat, ill-treat, maltreat. These verbs mean to treat a person or thing wrongfully, incorrectly, or harmfully.
Abuse applies to injurious, improper, or unreasonable treatment: He had abused his car.
Mistreat, ill-treat, and maltreat all share the sense of inflicting injury, often intentionally, as through malice:
Misuse stresses incorrect or acknowledgeable handling: The library book had been misused. Do not mistreat the prisoners.. She had ill-treated the horse. Do not maltreat your pets.
3
SYNONYMS: acknowledge, admit, own, avow, confess, concede. These verbs mean to make a disclosure, usually with reluctance or under pressure.
To acknowledge is to accept responsibility for something one makes known: He acknowledged that the purchase had been a mistake.
Admit usually implies marked reluctance in acknowledging one's acts or accepting a different point of view: He admitted he had been absent.
Own stresses personal acceptance of and responsibility for one's thoughts or deeds: She owned that she had fears for the child's safety.
Avow, a strong term, means to assert openly and boldly. He avowed to try harder.
Confess usually emphasizes disclosure of something damaging or inconvenient to oneself: I have to confess that I lied to you.
To concede is to admit something, such as the validity of an argument, often against one's will: The lawyer refused to concede that the two cases were at all similar.
4
SYNONYMS: active, energetic, dynamic, vigorous, lively. These adjectives are compared as they mean engaged in activity.
Active, the most neutral, merely means being in a state of action as opposed to being passive or quiescent: an active toddler; an active imagination; saw active service in the army.
Energetic suggests sustained enthusiastic action with unflagging vitality: an energetic program for the college.
Dynamic connotes energy and forcefulness that is often inspiring to others: A dynamic speaker, the senator often persuades her colleagues to change their votes.
Vigorous implies healthy strength and robustness: It was a vigorous defence of the school.
Lively suggests brisk alertness, animation, and energy: I take a lively interest in politics.
5
SYNONYMS: admonish, reprove, rebuke, reprimand, reproach. These verbs refer to adverse criticism intended as a corrective or caution.
Admonish implies the giving of advice or a warning so that a fault can be rectified or a danger avoided: We admonished his lack of honesty.
Reprove usually suggests gentle criticism and constructive intent: With a quick look the teacher reproved the child for whispering in class.
Rebuke and reprimand both refer to sharp, often angry criticism; of the two reprimand more frequently implies formal or official censure: They rarely rebuke other agencies in public.
Reproach usually refers to regretful or unhappy criticism arising from a sense of disappointment: Even if I did wrong you should not have reproached me in public.
6
SYNONYMS: affect, influence, impress, touch, move, strike. These verbs are compared as they mean to produce a mental or emotional effect.
To affect is to act upon a person's emotions: The adverse criticism the book received didn't affect the author one way or another.
Influence implies a degree of control or sway over the thinking and actions, as well as the emotions, of another: Humanity is influenced by what you do.
To impress is to produce a marked, deep, often enduring effect: The Tibetan landscape particularly impressed him.
Touch usually means to arouse a tender response, such as love, gratitude, or compassion: The tributes [to the two deceased musicians] were fitting and touching.
Move suggests profound emotional effect that sometimes leads to action or has a further consequence: Her experiences as a refugee moved us to tears.
Strike implies keenness or force of mental response to a stimulus: I was struck by the sudden change in his behavior.
7
SYNONYMS: agree, conform, harmonize accord, correspond, and coincide. These verbs all indicate a compatible relationship between people or things.
Agree may indicate mere lack of incongruity or discord: The testimony of all the witnesses agrees on that point. Often, however, it suggests acceptance of ideas or actions and thus accommodation: We finally agreed on a price for the house.
Conform stresses correspondence in essence or basic characteristics, sometimes as a result of accommodation to established standards: Students are required to conform to the rules.
Harmonize implies a relationship of unlike elements combined or arranged to make a pleasing whole: Beige harmonizes with black.
Accord implies harmonious relationship, unity, or consistency, as in feeling or essential nature. We will accord them every courtesy.
Correspond refers either to actual similarity in form or nature: The Diet in Japan corresponds to the American Congress.
Coincide stresses exact agreement in space, time, or thought: His interest happily coincided with his duty.
8
SYNONYMS: alone, lonely, lonesome, solitary. These adjectives are compared as they describe lack of companionship.
Alone emphasizes being apart from others but does not necessarily imply unhappiness: I do not like to be alone at night.
Lonely often connotes painful awareness of being alone: She was a pitiful and lonely woman.
Lonesome emphasizes a plaintive desire for companionship: He was lonesome for his absent wife.
Solitary often shares the connotations of lonely and lonesome: He led a solitary life in the desert.
9
SYNONYMS: also, too, likewise, besides, moreover, furthermore. These adverbs indicate the presence of or introduce something additional.
Also, too, and likewise generally imply that the additional element or consideration is equal in weight to what precedes it.
Also is more formal in tone than too: He is gentle, but he is also capable of fierce intellectual combat. If you buy a car, you'll need a parking place, too.
Likewise is even more formal than also and may imply similarity between elements as well as equality: The parents were likewise going to attend the ceremony.
Besides often introduces an element that reinforces what has gone before: I don't feel like cooking; besides, there's no food in the house.
Moreover and furthermore frequently stress the importance of what is to come: The cellar was dark and forbidding; moreover, I knew some mice had nested there. I don't want you to go; furthermore, I forbid it.
10
SYNONYMS: ambiguous, equivocal, obscure, recondite, abstruse, vague, cryptic, enigmatic. These adjectives mean lacking clarity of meaning.
Ambiguous indicates the presence of two or more possible meanings: Frustrated by ambiguous instructions, the parents weren't able to assemble the new toy.
Something equivocal is unclear or misleading, sometimes as a result of a deliberate effort to avoid exposure of one's position: The polling had a complex and equivocal message for potential female candidates at all levels.
Obscure implies that meaning is hidden, either from lack of clarity of expression or from inherent difficulty of comprehension: Those who do not appreciate Kafka's work say his style is obscure and too complex.
Recondite and abstruse connote the erudite obscurity of the scholar: some recondite problem in historiography. The professor's lectures were so abstruse that students often avoided them.
What is vague is unclear because it is expressed in an indefinite form or because it reflects imprecision of thought: He had just vague memories of his childhood.
Cryptic suggests a puzzling terseness that is often intended to discourage understanding: The new insurance policy is written without cryptic or mysterious terms.
Something enigmatic is mysterious, puzzling, and often challenging: I didn't grasp the meaning of that enigmatic comment.
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