Dictionary

near-antonym en · NOUN

Etymology

From near + antonym.

Meanings

1. A word that is nearly an antonym, when an antonym is defined strictly by complete negation or polar oppositeness. (Many reference works use a looser definition of antonym that lumps these words into the single category of antonyms; some make the more rigorous distinction.)
   • This is a revised edition of a thesaurus first published in 1980 (BRD 1981). The work uses a dictionary format, with words and numbered definitions on the left column of a page, and corresponding numbered synonyms, near-synonyms, antonyms, and near-antonyms on the right column. 1989, Book Review Digest, volume 85:
   • […] near antonyms (sinking/swelling; vast/faint) gives way to a set of near synonyms (weird/appealing; suggestive/wild); what starts out as opposition proves complementary instead. And all of the adjectives that testify […] 1983, Bette Lynn London, Forms of Evasion: The Modern Novel as Retreat [dissertation abstract], University of California, page 101:
   • As a basic editing tool, Legacy has most of the usual features characteristic of Windows products. It will do columnar cut and paste, perform search and replace effectively, and maintain capitalization […] complete thesaurus with synonyms, near-synonyms, antonyms, near-antonyms, definitions, parts of speech, and references to alternative words. The speller catches double words, capitalization errors, and simple punctuation errors, such as double periods. The program does not have user dictionaries. However, it will support small exception lists — NBI suggests the lists be 50 words or fewer — for proper names and other special terms. 1990, InfoWorld, volume 12, page 111:
   • An antonym is a word whose meaning is directly opposite to another word's meaning. […] Words that are only opposite in some aspect of their meaning cannot be said to be true antonyms. For example, sad […] funny […] Near antonyms are words that do not qualify as antonyms under the strict definition used for this thesaurus but which are clearly in marked contrast with the members of a synonym group. 2019, Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus, 2nd edition, Merriam-Webster, →ISBN, page 8a:
   • Among the most common antonyms or near antonyms are the following. Make sure that you know their meanings. 1978, Jim Wayne Corder, Handbook of Current English, Scott, Foresman, →ISBN, page 308:
   • […] Near-antonyms may be treated in a similar fashion. 1972, Frederick Wilfrid Lancaster, Vocabulary Control for Information Retrieval, Information Resources Press, →ISBN, page 80:

Forms

Coordinates

near-synonym · cohyponym · cognitive synonym · parasynonym · antonym · coordinate term · synonym

Hypernyms

word · term

Relateds

Wiktionary:Semantic relations