antonym

B1 Topic:Communication

US /ˈæn.təˌnɪm/ See IPA manual

Freq #194931

Meanings

1

noun
A word that means the opposite of another word.

"Hot" is an antonym of "cold."

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a word that means the... opposite

Word family

Forms antonyms

Derived forms antonymicantonymizeantonymousantonymyautantonymautoantonymself-antonym

Etymology

From French antonyme (1840s and 1850s), which was modeled on earlier synonyme and influenced by the etymons of Ancient Greek ἀντωνυμία (antōnumía, “pronoun”); credit for popularization of the French loanword's naturalization into English is given principally to Charles John Smith and his 1867 book Synonyms and Antonyms: Or, Kindred Words and Their Opposites. Collected and Contrasted. By surface analysis, ant- + -onym.

antonyme French ἀντωνυμία Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Communication Language & Linguistics

External links

# antonym

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈæn.təˌnɪm/
**Frequency rank:** 194931

## Meanings
1. A word that means the opposite of another word.

## Examples
- "Hot" is an antonym of "cold."

## Derived Forms
- antonymic
- antonymize
- antonymous
- antonymy
- autantonym
- autoantonym
- self-antonym

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: antonyme
- Root: ἀντωνυμία

## Etymology
From French antonyme (1840s and 1850s), which was modeled on earlier synonyme and influenced by the etymons of Ancient Greek ἀντωνυμία (antōnumía, “pronoun”); credit for popularization of the French loanword's naturalization into English is given principally to Charles John Smith and his 1867 book Synonyms and Antonyms: Or, Kindred Words and Their Opposites. Collected and Contrasted. By surface analysis, ant- + -onym.

## AI Etymology
Antonym comes from French antonyme (1840s and 1850s), which was modeled on earlier synonyme and influenced by the etymons of Ancient Greek ἀντωνυμία (antōnumía, “pronoun”); credit for popularization of the French loanword's naturalization into English is given principally to Charles John Smith and his 1867 book Synonyms and Antonyms: Or, Kindred Words and Their Opposites. Collected and Contrasted. By surface analysis, ant- plus -onym.

## Topics
- Communication
- Language & Linguistics

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