99 Fun Facts About Synonym

Which word is a synonym of "frugal"?

It comes from the Latin frugalis, meaning virtuous or thrifty, and displaced the Old English spærhende, literally 'spare-handed'.

Which word is a synonym of "candid"?

Frank is the synonym: candid comes from the Latin candidus, white, the same root as candidate, an office-seeker who once wore a whitened toga.

Which word is a synonym of "feasible"?

It descends from the Old French faisable, from faire, to do, so it literally means 'do-able'.

Which word is a synonym of "tedious"?

Monotonous is the synonym: tedious comes from the Latin taedium, weariness, the same root that gives English tedium.

Which word is a synonym of "tranquil"?

The Latin tranquillus is built on the root of quies, rest, the source of quiet.

Which word is a synonym of "obsolete"?

Antiquated is the synonym: obsolete comes from the Latin obsoletus, worn out or gone out of use, from obsolescere, to grow old.

Which word is a synonym of "arrogant"?

Conceited is the synonym: arrogant comes via Old French from the Latin arrogans, present participle of arrogare, to claim for oneself.

Which word is a synonym of "mundane"?

Commonplace, banal, everyday; its older sense was simply 'worldly' as opposed to spiritual.

Which word is a synonym of "jubilant"?

Elated is the synonym: jubilant comes from the Latin iubilans, shouting for joy, the present participle of iubilare.

Which word is a synonym of "docile"?

Submissive, or compliant, meek, tractable; docilis comes from docere, to teach.

Which word is a synonym of "callous"?

Heartless is the synonym: callous comes from the Latin callosus, hard-skinned, from callum, hardened skin, the same root as a callus on the foot.

Which word is a synonym of "hostile"?

Unfriendly is the synonym: hostile comes from the Latin hostis, stranger or enemy, the same root as host in the old sense of an army.

Which word is a synonym of "abhor"?

Loathe is the synonym: abhor comes from the Latin abhorrere, to shrink back in horror, built on horrere, to bristle or shudder.

Which word is a synonym of "audacious"?

Daring is the synonym: audacious comes from the Latin audax, bold, from audere, to dare, the same root that gives audacity.

Which word is a synonym of "belligerent"?

Combative is the synonym: belligerent comes from the Latin belligerare, to wage war, from bellum, war, and gerere, to carry on; a treaty's belligerents are its warring parties.

Which word is a synonym of "arduous"?

Strenuous, laborious, uphill; arduus is akin to the Irish ard, meaning high.

Which word is a synonym of "dearth"?

Scarcity is the synonym: dearth probably comes from an unrecorded Old English noun built on dear in its old sense of costly, so it first meant high prices or famine.

Which word is a synonym of "ephemeral"?

Fleeting is the synonym: ephemeral comes from the Greek ephemeros, lasting only a day, from epi and hemera, day; the mayfly order Ephemeroptera is named for the same reason.

Which word is a synonym of "hackneyed"?

Trite is the synonym: a hackney was a horse, later a carriage, hired out for ordinary use, so anything worn out by overuse became hackneyed; hack for a jobbing writer shares the root.

Which word is a synonym of "meticulous"?

Painstaking, or fastidious; the sense of careful precision came later, from metus, the Latin for fear.

Which word is a synonym of "nefarious"?

Wicked is the synonym: nefarious comes from the Latin nefas, an act contrary to divine law, from ne, not, and fas, what religion permits.

Which word is a synonym of "zealous"?

Fervent is the synonym: zealous goes back to the Greek zelos, meaning both zeal and jealousy, which makes zealous a doublet of jealous.

Which word is a synonym of "morose"?

Sullen is the synonym: morose comes from the Latin morosus, peevish or particular, from mos, custom or self-will, the same root as moral.

Which word is a synonym of "laconic"?

Terse is the synonym: laconic comes from Laconia, the region ruled by Sparta, whose people were famous for their brevity of speech.

Which word is a synonym of "capricious"?

Fickle is the synonym: capricious comes via French and Italian from capriccio, a sudden whim, the same word that names the free-form musical capriccio.

Which word is a synonym of "clandestine"?

Covert is the synonym: clandestine comes from the Latin clandestinus, secret or concealed, built on clam, secretly; French keeps the same word as clandestin.

Which word is a synonym of "garrulous"?

Talkative is the synonym: garrulous comes from the Latin garrulus, built on the verb garrire, to chatter.

Which word is a synonym of "placid"?

Cool-headed is the synonym: placid comes from the Latin placidus, peaceful, from placere, to please, the root of please and placebo.

Which word is a synonym of "obstinate"?

Stubborn is the synonym: obstinate comes from the Latin obstinare, to set one's mind firmly on something, and has been recorded in English since the 1300s.

Which word is a synonym of "insipid"?

Bland is the synonym: insipid comes from the Latin insipidus, tasteless, from in, not, and sapidus, savoury, the root of sapid and sapor.

Which word is a synonym of "petulant"?

Grouchy is the synonym: petulant comes from the Latin petulans, akin to petere, to attack; it meant impudent or wanton before settling on irritable.

Which word is a synonym of "lethargic"?

Torpid is the synonym: lethargic comes from the Greek lethargos, forgetful, which contains lethe, forgetting, the name of the river of oblivion in Hades.

Which word is a synonym of "reticent"?

Tight-lipped is the synonym: reticent comes from the Latin reticens, present participle of reticere, to keep silent, from re and tacere.

Which word is a synonym of "taciturn"?

Untalkative is the synonym: taciturn comes from the Latin taciturnus, habitually silent, built on tacitus, silent, the root of tacit.

Which word is a synonym of "exuberant"?

High-spirited is the synonym: exuberant comes from the Latin exuberare, to be abundant, from ex, out, and uber, which meant both udder and fertile.

Which word is a synonym of "venerate"?

Esteem is the synonym: venerate comes from the Latin venerari, to worship or revere, built on the same root as Venus, the goddess of love.

Which word is a synonym of "fastidious"?

Fussy is the synonym: fastidious comes from the Latin fastidiosus, disdainful or squeamish, from fastidium, loathing or over-nice taste.

Which word is a synonym of "magnanimous"?

Big-hearted is the synonym: magnanimous comes from the Latin magnanimus, from magnus, great, and animus, soul or spirit.

Which word is a synonym of "incessant"?

Unceasing is the synonym: incessant comes from the Late Latin incessans, from in, not, and cessans, the present participle of cessare, to cease.

Which word is a synonym of "rescind"?

Revoke is the synonym: rescind comes from the Latin rescindere, to cut back, from re, back, and scindere, to cut, the root of scission.

Which word is a synonym of "rancor"?

The Latin rancor meant both rancidity and grudge, from ranceo, to be rotten, the source of rancid.

Which word is a synonym of "harbinger"?

Herald is the synonym: a harbinger was originally a person sent ahead to arrange lodgings, from the Old French herbergier, to provide shelter or set up camp.

Which word is a synonym of "trepidation"?

Apprehension is the synonym: trepidation was borrowed from the Latin trepidatio, from trepidare, to be agitated; intrepid is its fearless cousin.

Which word is a synonym of "umbrage"?

Offense is the synonym: umbrage comes from the Latin umbra, shadow, and meant shade in English before it came to mean displeasure at a slight, as in taking umbrage.

Which word is a synonym of "vindicate"?

Exonerate is the synonym: vindicate comes from the Latin vindicare, to lay legal claim to, set free or avenge, built on vindex, a defender or avenger.

Which word is a synonym of "impecunious"?

Penniless is the synonym: impecunious is built on the Latin pecunia, money, which originally meant wealth in cattle, from pecus, herd.

Which word is a synonym of "myriad"?

Plethora is the synonym: myriad comes from the Greek myrias, a unit of ten thousand, from myrios, countless.

Which word is a synonym of "gregarious"?

Sociable is the synonym: gregarious comes from the Latin gregarius, belonging to a flock, from grex, herd; congregate and egregious share the root.

Which word is a synonym of "ubiquitous"?

It comes from the Medieval Latin ubiquitas, from ubique, everywhere, from ubi, where, plus the suffix que, ever.

Which word is a synonym of "zenith"?

Apex is the synonym: zenith comes via Medieval Latin from the Arabic samt ar-ra's, direction of the head, with the -ni- thought to be a medieval copying error for -m-.

In which year was Roget's Thesaurus first published?

1852 is the year: Peter Mark Roget, a physician and former secretary of the Royal Society, published his Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases in 1852, aged 73.

The word 'thesaurus' comes from an Ancient Greek word meaning what?

Treasury or storehouse is the meaning: the Greek thesauros was a treasure house, and until the 1800s a thesaurus was any dictionary, such as Robert Estienne's 16th-century Thesaurus Linguae Latinae.

The Greek elements of the word 'synonym' translate literally as what?

Together-name is the literal sense: syn means together or alike and onoma means name, so a synonym is a word that shares a name for the same thing.

Which of these is the standard test for whether two words are synonyms?

Substitution in a sentence is the test: if one word swaps for the other without changing the meaning, they pass; begin, start, commence and initiate all do.

The English word 'foreword' was coined as a purist replacement for which Romance-derived word?

Preface is the word: foreword was coined in the 1800s on the model of the German Vorwort as a native-English replacement for the Latin-derived preface.

English pairs like people and folk, or liberty and freedom, set Old English words beside words from which language?

Norman French supplied people, liberty and archer, the conquerors' tongue, beside the native folk, freedom and bowman.

What is the term for a word that is its own opposite, like cleave or sanction?

Contronym is the term: cleave can mean both split apart and cling together, and sanction both permit and penalise; such words are also called Janus words or auto-antonyms.

Roget's original Thesaurus is organised into how many primary classes?

Six is the number: Roget's classes are Abstract Relations, Space, Matter, Intellect, Volition and Affections, branching into about a thousand headings on a schema owed to Leibniz and ultimately Aristotle.

The Amarakosha, a thesaurus written in verse in the 4th century, is in which language?

Sanskrit is the language: the Amarakosha, attributed to the scholar Amarasimha, lists synonyms in metrical verse for memorisation and remains a standard reference for Sanskrit learners.

Which word is a synonym of "verbose"?

Wordy is the synonym: verbose comes from the Latin verbosus, full of words, from verbum, word, the root of verb and verbatim.

Which word is a synonym of "mendacious"?

Untruthful is the synonym: mendacious comes from the Latin mendax, lying, and has nothing to do with mend, which descends from emendare.

The first edition of Roget's Thesaurus contained roughly how many words?

15,000 is the rough count: Roget's first edition listed about 15,000 words under roughly a thousand headings, and every later edition has grown larger while keeping his classification.

Which word is a synonym of "deleterious"?

Harmful is the synonym: deleterious comes from the Greek deleterios, noxious, from deleisthai, to hurt, and is common in medical and genetic writing.

Which word is a synonym of "enervate"?

Debilitate is the synonym: enervate comes from the Latin enervare, to cut the sinews of, from nervus, sinew, so despite its sound it means to weaken.

Which word is a synonym of "lucid"?

Clear is the synonym: lucid comes from the Latin lucidus, bright or shining, from lux, light, the root of lucent and translucent.

Which word is a synonym of "furtive"?

Stealthy is the synonym: furtive comes from the Latin furtivus, stolen or secret, from furtum, theft, and fur, thief.

Which word is a synonym of "indolent"?

Lazy is the synonym: indolent comes from the Latin in, not, and dolere, to feel pain, which is why medicine calls a slow, painless tumour indolent.

Which word is a synonym of "nonchalant"?

It comes from the Old French nonchaloir, 'to be unconcerned', ultimately from the Latin calere, 'to be warm'.

Which word is a synonym of "opulent"?

Sumptuous is the synonym: opulent comes from the Latin opulentus, wealthy, built on ops, wealth or resources, the root of copious.

The lexical database WordNet was created in 1985 at which university?

Princeton is the university: psychologist George A. Miller started WordNet there in 1985, and he and Christiane Fellbaum received the 2006 Antonio Zampolli Prize for it.

Which word is a synonym of "erudite"?

Scholarly is the synonym: erudite comes from the Latin eruditus, literally freed from roughness, from e, out of, and rudis, the root of rude.

Which word is a synonym of "gullible"?

Naive is the synonym: gullible comes from the verb gull, to dupe, and the old joke that it is missing from the dictionary is itself a test of gullibility.

WordNet groups synonyms into sets known by what name?

Synsets is the name: each synset is an unordered set of synonyms with a short gloss and usage examples, linked to other synsets by relations such as antonymy and part-whole links.

Which word is a synonym of "malleable"?

Flexible is the synonym: malleable comes from the Latin malleus, hammer, and first described metals that could be beaten into thin sheets.

Which word is a synonym of "ameliorate"?

Improve is the synonym: ameliorate is built on the Latin melior, better, the same root as the French meilleur.

Which word is a synonym of "cacophony"?

Dissonance is the synonym: cacophony comes from the Greek kakos, bad, plus phone, sound; its opposite is euphony.

Which word is a synonym of "querulous"?

Whining is the synonym: querulous comes from the Latin queri, to complain, the same root that gives English quarrel.

In WordNet's terminology, 'canine' is what kind of term for 'dog'?

Hypernym is the term: canine is a hypernym, or broader term, of dog, and dog is in turn a hyponym of canine; every WordNet noun hierarchy leads up to the single root 'entity'.

Which word is a synonym of "tenacious"?

Dogged, unwilling to yield or give up; tenacious can also describe physically sticky or adhesive substances.

Which word is a synonym of "wistful"?

Yearning is the synonym: wistful probably grew out of the older adverb wistly, intently, with its sense of longing shaped by the similar-sounding wishful.

Which term did the Fowler brothers coin in 1906 for using synonyms just to avoid repetition?

Elegant variation is the term: the Fowler brothers introduced it in The King's English, and Henry Fowler's 1926 Modern English Usage warned there are few literary faults so widely prevalent.

Which word is a synonym of "copious"?

Abundant is the synonym: copious comes from the Latin copia, plenty, the same root found in cornucopia, the horn of plenty.

Which word is a synonym of "irate"?

Enraged is the synonym: irate comes from the Latin ira, anger, which also gives English irascible and ire.

Which word is a synonym of "alacrity"?

Eagerness is the synonym: alacrity comes from the Latin alacer, lively or brisk, which is also the ancestor of the Italian musical direction allegro.

Which word is a synonym of "facetious"?

Flippant is the synonym: facetious comes from the Latin facetus, witty, and is also one of the few English words with all five vowels once each in alphabetical order.

Guardian sub-editors call gratuitous synonyms 'povs', an acronym for what phrase?

The phrase was cut from a draft article about carrots in the Liverpool Echo.

Which word is a synonym of "lugubrious"?

Mournful is the synonym: lugubrious comes from the Latin lugere, to mourn, and usually implies grief that is exaggerated or theatrical.

Which word is a synonym of "pallid"?

Pale is the synonym: pallid comes from the Latin pallidus, pale, from pallere, to be pale, the root of pallor and of the pallid bat's species name, Antrozous pallidus.

The Historical Thesaurus of English, begun in 1965, is compiled at which university?

Glasgow is the university: the Historical Thesaurus of English was begun there in 1965 under Michael Samuels, and its print version, the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, appeared in 2009.

Which word is a synonym of "sagacious"?

Shrewd is the synonym: sagacious comes from the Latin sagax, which originally meant keen-scented and was used of hunting dogs with a sharp nose.

Which word is a synonym of "brusque"?

Curt is the synonym: brusque reached English via French from the Italian brusco, sour or tart, a sense that survives in Italian for harsh wine.

Which word is a synonym of "sycophant"?

Flatterer is the synonym: the Greek sykophantes literally means fig-shower and in ancient Athens meant an informer; the modern sense of a servile flatterer arose later in English.

The Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, a vast Latin dictionary begun in 1894, is compiled in which city?

Munich is the city: the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae is compiled at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences from an archive of about 10 million paper slips covering Latin from its earliest texts to about AD 600.

Which word is a synonym of "parsimonious"?

Stingy is the synonym: parsimonious comes from the Latin parsimonia, frugality, from parcere, to spare, the same root as parsimony.

Peter Mark Roget became the first secretary of which Manchester institution?

The Portico Library is the institution: Roget, then a physician at the Manchester Infirmary, became its first secretary when it opened in 1806 and lectured on physiology in the city.

In Turkish, native 'kara' and Persian-borrowed 'siyah' are synonyms for which colour?

Black is the colour: kara is the native Turkish word and siyah a Persian loan; Ottoman Turkish went further, with water as su (Turkish), ab (Persian) or ma (Arabic).

Which 18th-century French philosopher wrote, but never published, a dictionary of synonyms?

Condillac is the philosopher: his dictionary of synonyms stayed unpublished in his lifetime, long after Gabriel Girard's 1718 La Justesse de la langue françoise had set the genre's pattern.

Which word is a synonym of "perfidious"?

Treacherous is the synonym: perfidious comes from the Latin perfidia, faithlessness, from per, away, and fides, faith, the root of fidelity.

Which word is a synonym of "pulchritude"?

Beauty is the synonym: pulchritude comes from the Latin pulchritudo, from pulcher, beautiful, and despite its harsh sound it simply means physical beauty.