98 Fun Facts About Synonym

Which word is a synonym of "frugal"?

Thrifty is the synonym: frugal comes from the Latin frugalis, from frux, fruit or produce; frugi, literally 'for fruit', was the Roman word for a useful, temperate person.

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"?

Doable is the synonym: feasible descends from the Old French faisable, from faire, to do, so it literally means 'that can be done'.

Which word is a synonym of "tedious"?

Monotonous is the synonym, and literally means 'of one tone', from the Greek monos, single, and tonos, tone; tedious itself comes from the Latin taedium, weariness.

Which word is a synonym of "tranquil"?

Serene is the synonym: it comes from the Latin serenus, unclouded, a word for fair skies, while tranquil comes from tranquillus, calm or still.

Which word is a synonym of "obsolete"?

Antiquated is the synonym: obsolete comes from the Latin obsolescere, to fall into disuse, perhaps built on solere, to be accustomed: what is obsolete has dropped out of custom.

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 iubilare, to shout for joy; jubilee looks like a cousin but goes back to the Hebrew yobel, a ram's horn, reshaped by the Latin verb.

Which word is a synonym of "docile"?

Submissive is the synonym: docile comes from the Latin docilis, easily taught, from docere, to teach, the verb that also gives doctor, literally 'teacher'.

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, a verb that grew out of avidus, greedy, the word behind avid, so to dare was at first to crave.

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 is the synonym: arduous comes from the Latin arduus, high or steep, so an arduous task is by origin an uphill climb.

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 is the synonym: meticulous comes from the Latin metus, fear, and first meant timid; the idea of fearful, anxious care over details came later.

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 wilful, 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 clam, secretly, with an ending probably copied from intestinus, internal, the word behind intestine.

Which word is a synonym of "garrulous"?

Talkative is the synonym: garrulous comes from the Latin garrire, to chatter, which is why the noisy jays were given the genus name Garrulus.

Which word is a synonym of "placid"?

Even-tempered is the synonym: placid comes from the Latin placidus, peaceful, kin to placere, to please; a placebo, Latin for 'I shall please', got its medical name as a medicine given simply to please the patient.

Which word is a synonym of "obstinate"?

Stubborn is the synonym: obstinate comes from the Latin obstinare, to persist, built on a form of stare, to stand, so the obstinate are by origin people standing their ground.

Which word is a synonym of "insipid"?

Bland is the synonym: insipid comes from the Latin in, not, and sapidus, tasty, from sapere, to taste; the same verb also meant to be wise and gives the sapiens in Homo sapiens.

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 reticere, to keep silent, so it means unwilling to speak, though it is often confused with plain reluctant.

Which word is a synonym of "taciturn"?

Untalkative is the synonym: taciturn comes from the Latin tacitus, silent, the root of tacit, as in a tacit agreement that is understood without being spoken.

Which word is a synonym of "exuberant"?

High-spirited is the synonym: exuberant comes from the Latin exuberare, built on uberare, to be fruitful, from uber, fertile, a close relative of the English word udder.

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 fastidium, loathing or squeamishness, and in Middle English it described the scornful and squeamish before the merely hard to please.

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 joins the Latin in, not, to cessare, to stop, the repeated-action form of cedere, to yield, so to cease is by origin to keep giving way.

Which word is a synonym of "rescind"?

Revoke is the synonym: rescind comes from the Latin rescindere, to cut off or tear away, from scindere, to cut or split, so to rescind a law is by origin to cut it away.

Which word is a synonym of "rancor"?

Resentment is the synonym: rancor comes from a Late Latin word for a rancid smell, from rancere, to stink or be rotten, so a grudge is bitterness that has gone off; rancid shares the root.

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 claim, set free or avenge, and the same verb, worn down in Old French, gives English avenge.

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"?

Multitude is the synonym: myriad comes from the Greek myrias, ten thousand, from myrios, countless, and in older English a myriad could still mean exactly 10,000.

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"?

Omnipresent is the synonym: ubiquitous is built on the Latin ubique, everywhere, from ubi, where, just as omnipresent joins the Latin omnis, all, to present.

Which word is a synonym of "zenith"?

Apex is the synonym: zenith comes from the Arabic samt ar-ra's, path over the head; medieval scribes miscopied samt, turning its m into ni.

Thesaurus author Peter Mark Roget improved which calculating tool?

Slide rule is the answer: Roget devised a log-log slide rule for working out the powers of numbers, and his paper on it won him election to the Royal Society in 1815.

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' is a native twin of which word of Latin origin?

Preface is the word: foreword was probably modelled on the German Vorwort, giving English a home-grown twin for preface, from the Latin praefatio, a saying beforehand.

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.

The Amarakosha, an ancient thesaurus composed entirely in verse, is written in which language?

Sanskrit is the language: the Amarakosha, credited to the scholar Amarasimha, sets its synonyms in metre so that students could learn the whole word-hoard by heart.

Which word is a synonym of "verbose"?

Wordy is the synonym: verbose comes from the Latin verbum, word, and the match runs deeper, since verbum and the English word itself descend from one ancient root for speaking.

Which word is a synonym of "mendacious"?

Untruthful is the synonym: mendacious comes from the Latin mendax, lying, built on menda, a fault, the same root that gives amend and its shortened form mend, by origin to take the fault out.

After Peter Mark Roget died in 1869, who took over the editing of his Thesaurus?

Son is the answer: John Lewis Roget edited the 1879 edition from corrections his father had left, so the book stayed in the family after its author's death.

Which word is a synonym of "deleterious"?

Harmful is the synonym: deleterious comes from the Greek deleisthai, to hurt, while its look-alike delete comes from the Latin delere, to wipe out.

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, a word that meant power and resources as well as riches.

Which of these words is a synonym, not an opposite, of 'flammable'?

Inflammable is the synonym: its in- is the Latin for 'in', as in inflame, not the negative in- of indecent, so both words mean easily set on fire.

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 is built on gull, an old word for a dupe, probably from an obsolete verb meaning to swallow, as if the gullible will swallow anything.

WordNet arranges English words into groups of synonyms known by what name?

Synsets is the name, short for synonym sets: each gathers words of one meaning under a short definition, and the links between synsets let software trace how meanings relate.

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: hyper is Greek for over, so canine sits above dog as the broader word, while dog is a hyponym, an 'under-name', of canine.

Which word is a synonym of "tenacious"?

Dogged is the synonym: tenacious comes from the Latin tenax, holding fast, from tenere, to hold, the verb behind tenant; it can also describe sticky things that cling.

Which word is a synonym of "wistful"?

Yearning is the synonym: wistful probably grew out of the obsolete wistly, intently, and its sense of longing was perhaps coloured 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 gave it a section of The King's English, complaining that such 'elephantine shifts' leave readers wondering what the King will be called next time.

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 is why Dies irae, the medieval hymn of Judgment Day sung in Masses for the dead, translates as 'day of wrath'.

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 mock laboured synonyms as 'povs', after a draft that called which food 'popular orange vegetables'?

Carrots is the answer: a Liverpool Echo feature on their health benefits began a paragraph 'The popular orange vegetables', and the sub-editor who cut it took the joke with him to the Guardian.

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, and the same word twice over: both come from the Latin pallidus, pale reaching English through medieval French and pallid borrowed straight from Latin much later.

Glasgow's Historical Thesaurus, begun in 1965, re-sorts the whole vocabulary of which great dictionary?

Oxford English Dictionary is the answer: its Glasgow compilers spent 44 years on the task, and the 2009 result gathers, with dates, the words English has used for each thing since Old English.

Which word is a synonym of "sagacious"?

Shrewd is the synonym: sagacious comes from the Latin sagax, keen-scented as well as quick-witted, and in its first decades in English it described a sharp sense of smell before sharp judgment.

Which word is a synonym of "brusque"?

Curt is the synonym: brusque came through French from the Italian brusco, rough or tart, a word that first named the shrub butcher's broom.

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.

Which American word is a synonym of the British 'aubergine'?

Eggplant is the synonym: the name comes from white, egg-shaped varieties, while British English took aubergine from French, a word that travelled from Persian through Arabic and Catalan.

Which word is a synonym of "parsimonious"?

Stingy is the synonym: parsimonious comes from the Latin parcere, to spare, and the same sparing spirit gives science its law of parsimony, Occam's razor, which prefers the simplest explanation.

Which term describes swapping a blunt word for a milder synonym, such as 'passed away' for 'died'?

Euphemism is the term: it comes from the Greek euphemizein, to use words of good omen, from eu, well, and pheme, speech, so a euphemism is by origin a way of speaking well of something unpleasant.

Turkish 'kara', as in Karadeniz, a sea on Turkey's coast, and Persian-borrowed 'siyah' are synonyms for which colour?

Black is the colour: kara is the native Turkish word and siyah a Persian loan, and the Ottomans used both for the same sea, calling it Karadeniz or Bahr-i Siyah, the Black Sea.

Which word is a synonym of "sanguine"?

Optimistic is the synonym: sanguine comes from the Latin sanguis, blood, because medieval medicine held that people ruled by blood, one of the four humours, were ruddy, cheerful and hopeful.

Which word is a synonym of "perfidious"?

Treacherous is the synonym: perfidious comes from the Latin perfidia, faithlessness, built on fides, faith, the root of fidelity, so the perfidious are by origin breakers of faith.

Which word is a synonym of "pulchritude"?

Beauty is the synonym: pulchritude comes from the Latin pulcher, beautiful, while beauty itself comes through French from a different Latin word, bellus, pretty.