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An antonym is one of a pair of words with opposite meanings. Each word in the pair is the antithesis of the other. A word may have more than one antonym. There are three categories of antonyms identified by the nature of the relationship between the opposed meanings.
An unpaired word is one that, according to the usual rules of the language, would appear to have a related word but does not. [1] Such words usually have a prefix or suffix that would imply that there is an antonym , with the prefix or suffix being absent or opposite.
In Spanish dar (basic meaning "to give"), when applied to lessons or subjects, can mean "to teach", "to take classes" or "to recite", depending on the context. [22] Similarly with the French verb apprendre, which usually means "to learn" but may refer to the action of teaching someone. [23] Dutch leren and Afrikaans leer can mean "to teach" or ...
Similarly, the Stoics distinguish all the objects of human pursuit into three classes: good, bad, and adiaphora (indifferent). Virtue, wisdom, justice, temperance, and the like, are denominated good; their opposites were bad. Besides these there are many other objects of pursuit such as wealth, fame, etc., of
Oxymorons are words that communicate contradictions. An oxymoron (plurals: oxymorons and oxymora) is a figure of speech that juxtaposes concepts with opposite meanings within a word or in a phrase that is a self-contradiction. As a rhetorical device, an oxymoron illustrates a point to communicate and reveal a paradox.
Converses can be understood as a pair of words where one word implies a relationship between two objects, while the other implies the existence of the same relationship when the objects are reversed. [ 3 ] Converses are sometimes referred to as complementary antonyms because an "either/or" relationship is present between them.
The English language, along with other European ones, adopted the word and used it as similar meaning, slow and delayed. In English, the word "to decelerate " would become a more common term than "to retard", while in others like French [ 9 ] or Catalan, [ 10 ] retard is still in common usage to mean 'delay' ( tard ).
When the antiphrasal use is very common, the word can become an auto-antonym, [3] having opposite meanings depending on context. For example, Spanish dichoso [ 4 ] originally meant "fortunate, blissful" as in tierra dichosa , "fortunate land", but it acquired the ironic and colloquial meaning of "infortunate, bothersome" as in ¡Dichosas moscas ...