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Antonym

Antonyms are word pairs that are opposite in meaning, such as hot and cold, fat and thin, and up and down. Words may have different antonyms, depending on the meaning. Both long and tall are antonyms of short.

Antonyms are of two types:

Although the word antonym was only coined by philologistss in the 19th century, such relationships are a fundamental part of the language, in contrast to synonyms, which are a result of history and drawing of fine distinctions, or homonyms, which are mostly etymological accidents or coincidences.

See also