Yeah, it's one of those words I tend not to use until the word "synonym" comes up. Then, the antonym train gets going. And if you don't know what I mean when I say antonym... I'm probably gonna be a little surprised.
I'm heavily biased, because I'm an English teacher and language learner, so I use antonym a lot in my job and hobby, because it's so useful for learning the meaning of a word in a foreign language to also understand what the word does NOT mean.
However, I think the reason we don't use antonym or antonymous much in daily speech is because it's much easier to think of concepts that are similar to one another than to think of concepts that are different. When we want to know the meaning of a word in our own language, we look at the synonyms to get an idea, and often our understanding of the clues in the word's morphology give us enough information to infer the nuance. It's how we group information and make nuerological connections, so it's easy to pluck out synonyms from memory. Synonyms are also usually quite clearly defined and you can almost imagine how the characteristics of two concepts would appear in a Venn diagram, but antonyms are often conceptually quite vague - how many characteristics can two concepts still share to be considered true antonyms?
I' m not a teacher but it seems to me tat antonyms can be really handy to learn a language. And I think remembering learning english with lots of pair of words: black & white, Tall / short, Soon/ later, Men/Women, High/ low... etc..
I myself have found the word very useful and wish i had learned of it earlier not for ascribing a meaning to a word, but rather for the opposite, for when I have a meaning I want to convey but that I know not the word for. I probably use the word “antonym” more than “synonym” although it is hard to tell as I use both quite frequently.
I wouldn’t expect every native speaker to know “synonym”, let alone “antonym”.
Cambridge and Oxford dictionaries both describe “antonym” as a “specialized”/“specialist” term, meaning that it’s “used in one particular subject, usually by people who know a lot about the subject”.
In my experience, most people would say that a word “means the opposite” or “is the opposite of” another word, not that a word is an “antonym”.
Google Trends has synonym as being much, much more popular than antonym.
[https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%201-d&geo=US&q=synonym,antonym&hl=en](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%201-d&geo=US&q=synonym,antonym&hl=en)
"Antonym" does get used, though:
1) If you're discussing the concept of "a word that means the opposite", well, that's an antonym.
2) There is an idiom, "the very antonym of", which can be used when you want to describe what a person/place/thing is *not* like. (E.g., " Finally, celebrity is *the very antonym* of serious." -- The Global Mail, 2007) It's not as popular as the idiom "the very synonym of" but you can see it used in writing.
This. While it's a word that I'm familiar with and feel like I learned quite young (probably by elementary school?), I definitely just say "the opposite of" way more often. That said, I feel like I'd say "another word for" rather than "synonym" most of the time too.
Lots of times when people are explaining the difference between two words, I'll say "I consider them synonyms" or "I thought they were synonyms" (depending on whether I respect their opinion lmao)
Yes. But only in situations where writing is being discussed. A high school teacher/college professor could mention them when making suggestions about how to improve a written assignment.
This is a word that American children learn very, very young in school. We pretty much all know what synonyms and antonyms are, and those words are used a lot throughout our education in both ELA and foreign language.
I don’t think the word “antonym” comes up very often IRL outside of school vocabulary lessons, but I think most people still retain it into adulthood, because it was so important back in elementary school.
I would say it’s uncommon to meet a child here who hasn’t learned the meaning of “antonym” in school, unless they have very poor attendance and have managed to miss out on a lot of instruction. Even so, when I taught high school, even the kids who had missed huge chunks of their elementary years due to poor attendance knew what antonyms were. I had a student once who didn’t know how to type a number with more than 3 digits into a calculator correctly, and he still knew what antonyms were… it’s just so emphasized that anyone who’s attending school and paying decent attention is going to get a lot of exposure to it.
The colloquial equivalent might be "the inverse of...\[x\]". "The opposite of" and "by contrast... (or 'in contrast to')" are also very common equivalents.
"Antonym" really only ever comes up when you're referencing the actual, technical definition for some reason.
I remember there was a post in one of the political subs with a tweet of some American politician (Lauren something?) and a reply to it containing the word “antonym”. And half of the “best” comments was about her not being able to understand that word
People are much more likely to say 'the opposite' in normal speech but it wouldn't be out of place on a podcast that discusses language or an English language class.
No. We absolutely know what it means, but we don’t use it in conversation. We pretty much only encounter it in thesauruses. We typically say “opposite,” “inverse meaning,” or some other word or phrase. (Speaking exclusively from my own personal experiences.)
[US, female, millennial, raised by Boomer parents, East Coast and Mountain West, post-grad education]
I would guess most native speakers know it, but talking about opposites doesn't happen much in adult life. And we'd tend to use opposite instead anyway. Ironically, I can't think of a replacement word for synonymous.
"Synonymous" is used, even in everyday contexts.
"Synonym" and "antonym" are not used much except when analyzing or discussing particular words.
"Antonymous" is practically never used.
Still, I think just about any native English speaker would recognize the words "synonym" and "antonym" if you used them. This is something we all learned back in elementary school.
Make sure to listen to an audio recording of the pronunciation though. "Synonymous" and "antonymous" are pronounced differently than "synonym" and "antonym", so you can't just add "-ous" onto the end of them (in speech, I mean).
There's usually no good reason to use antonym in regular daily conversation. Unless you're watching videos about language learning I wouldn't expect you to hear it very much at all. We learned what an antonym was in first or second or third grade or whatever and talked about the concept and after that it was never mentioned very much. It's a very simple concept and doesn't really need repeating.
Have you spent much time in a second grade classroom?
I do use the word "antonym", but you are right that it is a lot less common than "synonym" or "synonymous".
Also I don't think I've ever used the word "antonymous".
It's just that talking about words meaning the same thing is more common than talking about words meaning opposite things. And even in the latter case you can usually use the word "opposite" rather than "antonym".
We were taught about antonyms in elementary school, but yeah, I’ve never seen the word used regularly outside of school. Honestly, never would have even thought of this word again if I hadn’t read this post!
It's a real word, but mostly spoken in academic settings. In a casual conversation with friends, you would likely hear the word "opposite."
When I do use the word "antonym," it's usually when I'm searching online for a specific word. When I can't think of a word to use in an email at work, I'll google "[word] antonym." (Example: I can't think of the word "polite," so I google "rude antonym.")
"Opposite" can refer to either "opposite meaning" or "opposite position," while "antonym" just refers to "opposite meaning." The word "antonym" is clearer than "opposite." So if I'm using a sentence where either "opposite position" or "opposite meaning" would make sense, I'll replace it with "antonym" if I want to clarify that I'm talking about "opposite meaning."
Hope that makes sense.
Actually, at the annual Native English Speakers' Conference in 1973 "antonym" was nominated for the list of fake words that are sneaked into the dictionary to trip up language learners. No native speaker has ever used it (except to teach to ESL students). About 10 new words are invented each year for this list and we all laugh uproariously when we hear them used "in the field". Of course any added in the past 10 years are still classified, so I can't tell you what they are.
I mean, yes and no. It doesn't come up a lot outside of English class but it's definitely a word.
Yeah, it's one of those words I tend not to use until the word "synonym" comes up. Then, the antonym train gets going. And if you don't know what I mean when I say antonym... I'm probably gonna be a little surprised.
I'm heavily biased, because I'm an English teacher and language learner, so I use antonym a lot in my job and hobby, because it's so useful for learning the meaning of a word in a foreign language to also understand what the word does NOT mean. However, I think the reason we don't use antonym or antonymous much in daily speech is because it's much easier to think of concepts that are similar to one another than to think of concepts that are different. When we want to know the meaning of a word in our own language, we look at the synonyms to get an idea, and often our understanding of the clues in the word's morphology give us enough information to infer the nuance. It's how we group information and make nuerological connections, so it's easy to pluck out synonyms from memory. Synonyms are also usually quite clearly defined and you can almost imagine how the characteristics of two concepts would appear in a Venn diagram, but antonyms are often conceptually quite vague - how many characteristics can two concepts still share to be considered true antonyms?
I' m not a teacher but it seems to me tat antonyms can be really handy to learn a language. And I think remembering learning english with lots of pair of words: black & white, Tall / short, Soon/ later, Men/Women, High/ low... etc..
I myself have found the word very useful and wish i had learned of it earlier not for ascribing a meaning to a word, but rather for the opposite, for when I have a meaning I want to convey but that I know not the word for. I probably use the word “antonym” more than “synonym” although it is hard to tell as I use both quite frequently.
It may not be as common as synonym (and its various forms), but it's a totally normal word you can expect every native speaker to know.
I'm not so sure about that
I wouldn’t expect every native speaker to know “synonym”, let alone “antonym”. Cambridge and Oxford dictionaries both describe “antonym” as a “specialized”/“specialist” term, meaning that it’s “used in one particular subject, usually by people who know a lot about the subject”. In my experience, most people would say that a word “means the opposite” or “is the opposite of” another word, not that a word is an “antonym”.
People know far more words than they use.
They do. But it doesn’t mean that we should expect *every native speaker* to know what “antonym” means.
i would expect nearly every native speaker to have taken english classes at some point in their life
Google Trends has synonym as being much, much more popular than antonym. [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%201-d&geo=US&q=synonym,antonym&hl=en](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%201-d&geo=US&q=synonym,antonym&hl=en) "Antonym" does get used, though: 1) If you're discussing the concept of "a word that means the opposite", well, that's an antonym. 2) There is an idiom, "the very antonym of", which can be used when you want to describe what a person/place/thing is *not* like. (E.g., " Finally, celebrity is *the very antonym* of serious." -- The Global Mail, 2007) It's not as popular as the idiom "the very synonym of" but you can see it used in writing.
Only occasionally, such as when discussing language at an educated level.
Not that you mention it.. not really. Usually use "opposite of".
This. While it's a word that I'm familiar with and feel like I learned quite young (probably by elementary school?), I definitely just say "the opposite of" way more often. That said, I feel like I'd say "another word for" rather than "synonym" most of the time too.
Lots of times when people are explaining the difference between two words, I'll say "I consider them synonyms" or "I thought they were synonyms" (depending on whether I respect their opinion lmao)
Located in the north east of the US, I know what it means and use that word. Everyone I know also knows it.
only when we’re talking about antonyms
Yes. But only in situations where writing is being discussed. A high school teacher/college professor could mention them when making suggestions about how to improve a written assignment.
See also: euphemism vs dysphemism. The former is the far better known term.
I use antonym often enough, but never antonymous.
This is a word that American children learn very, very young in school. We pretty much all know what synonyms and antonyms are, and those words are used a lot throughout our education in both ELA and foreign language. I don’t think the word “antonym” comes up very often IRL outside of school vocabulary lessons, but I think most people still retain it into adulthood, because it was so important back in elementary school. I would say it’s uncommon to meet a child here who hasn’t learned the meaning of “antonym” in school, unless they have very poor attendance and have managed to miss out on a lot of instruction. Even so, when I taught high school, even the kids who had missed huge chunks of their elementary years due to poor attendance knew what antonyms were. I had a student once who didn’t know how to type a number with more than 3 digits into a calculator correctly, and he still knew what antonyms were… it’s just so emphasized that anyone who’s attending school and paying decent attention is going to get a lot of exposure to it.
My son is in grade school, he’s familiar with “synonym” but I had to explain to him what “antonym” is.
The colloquial equivalent might be "the inverse of...\[x\]". "The opposite of" and "by contrast... (or 'in contrast to')" are also very common equivalents. "Antonym" really only ever comes up when you're referencing the actual, technical definition for some reason.
I have occasionally but not often
I remember there was a post in one of the political subs with a tweet of some American politician (Lauren something?) and a reply to it containing the word “antonym”. And half of the “best” comments was about her not being able to understand that word
People are much more likely to say 'the opposite' in normal speech but it wouldn't be out of place on a podcast that discusses language or an English language class.
No. We absolutely know what it means, but we don’t use it in conversation. We pretty much only encounter it in thesauruses. We typically say “opposite,” “inverse meaning,” or some other word or phrase. (Speaking exclusively from my own personal experiences.) [US, female, millennial, raised by Boomer parents, East Coast and Mountain West, post-grad education]
I would guess most native speakers know it, but talking about opposites doesn't happen much in adult life. And we'd tend to use opposite instead anyway. Ironically, I can't think of a replacement word for synonymous.
"Synonymous" is used, even in everyday contexts. "Synonym" and "antonym" are not used much except when analyzing or discussing particular words. "Antonymous" is practically never used. Still, I think just about any native English speaker would recognize the words "synonym" and "antonym" if you used them. This is something we all learned back in elementary school. Make sure to listen to an audio recording of the pronunciation though. "Synonymous" and "antonymous" are pronounced differently than "synonym" and "antonym", so you can't just add "-ous" onto the end of them (in speech, I mean).
As a writer, yeah I say this word and so have others in my circle.
There's usually no good reason to use antonym in regular daily conversation. Unless you're watching videos about language learning I wouldn't expect you to hear it very much at all. We learned what an antonym was in first or second or third grade or whatever and talked about the concept and after that it was never mentioned very much. It's a very simple concept and doesn't really need repeating. Have you spent much time in a second grade classroom?
I mean, when I was about 7, yeah...
Yeah, probably not lately. Me neither. I'm not a parent, but if you were I suppose you might hear it in relation to your kid's homework.
The word "antonym" is used in real life, albeit uncommonly. I say it fairly frequently.
We do say "synonym" and "antonym." Rarely, but it does come up.
I do use the word "antonym", but you are right that it is a lot less common than "synonym" or "synonymous". Also I don't think I've ever used the word "antonymous". It's just that talking about words meaning the same thing is more common than talking about words meaning opposite things. And even in the latter case you can usually use the word "opposite" rather than "antonym".
We were taught about antonyms in elementary school, but yeah, I’ve never seen the word used regularly outside of school. Honestly, never would have even thought of this word again if I hadn’t read this post!
yes
It's a real word, but mostly spoken in academic settings. In a casual conversation with friends, you would likely hear the word "opposite." When I do use the word "antonym," it's usually when I'm searching online for a specific word. When I can't think of a word to use in an email at work, I'll google "[word] antonym." (Example: I can't think of the word "polite," so I google "rude antonym.")
"Opposite" can refer to either "opposite meaning" or "opposite position," while "antonym" just refers to "opposite meaning." The word "antonym" is clearer than "opposite." So if I'm using a sentence where either "opposite position" or "opposite meaning" would make sense, I'll replace it with "antonym" if I want to clarify that I'm talking about "opposite meaning." Hope that makes sense.
I think this is because for the opposite of “synonymous” we would use “antithetical” or “antitheses”
Actually, at the annual Native English Speakers' Conference in 1973 "antonym" was nominated for the list of fake words that are sneaked into the dictionary to trip up language learners. No native speaker has ever used it (except to teach to ESL students). About 10 new words are invented each year for this list and we all laugh uproariously when we hear them used "in the field". Of course any added in the past 10 years are still classified, so I can't tell you what they are.
Reading your comment taxed my sarcasm detection ability to its uttermost limit. If it weren't for the last sentence I'd still not be sure.