A third usage (particularly that of the influential Lyons 1968, 1977) defines the term antonym as referring to only gradable opposites (the long : short type) while the other types are referred to with different terms. Therefore, as Crystal (2003) warns, the terms antonymy and antonym should be regarded with care. In this article, the usage of Lyons (1963, 1977) and Cruse (1986, 2004) will be followed where antonym is restricted to gradable opposites and opposite is used as the general term referring to any of the subtypes discussed below.
General discussion
Opposites are, interestingly, simultaneously different and similar in meaning. Typically, they differ in only one dimension of meaning, but are similar in most other respects, including similarity in grammar and positions of semantic abnormality. Additionally, not all words have an opposite. Some words are non-opposable. For example, animal or plant species have no binary opposites (other than possible gender opposites such as lion/lioness, etc.); the word platypus therefore has no word that stands in opposition to it (hence the unanswerability of What is the opposite of platypus?).
Other words are opposable but have an accidental gap in a given language's lexicon. For example, the word devout lacks a lexical opposite, but it is fairly easy to conceptualize a parameter of devoutness where devout lies at the positive pole with a missing member at the negative pole. Opposites of such words can nevertheless sometimes be formed with the prefixes un- or non-, with varying degrees of naturalness. For example, the word undevout appears in Webster's dictionary of 1828, while the pattern of non-person could conceivably be extended to non-platypus.
Opposites may be viewed as a special type of incompatibility.Words that are incompatible create the following type of entailment (where X is a given word and Y is a different word incompatible with word X):
- sentence A is X entails sentence A is not Y
An example of an incompatible pair of words is cat : dog:
- It's a cat entails It's not a dog
This incompatibility is also found in the opposite pairs fast : slow and stationary : moving, as can be seen below:
- It's fast entails It's not slow
- It's stationary entails It's not moving.
- Common opposites.
-
add – subtract
addition - subtraction
afraid - brave
agree - disagree
ahead - behind
alive - dead
alone - crowd
alone - group
ancient - modern
Angel - Devil
around - through
arrive - leave
awake - asleep
bent - straight
big - little
blow - suck
blunt - sharp
boring - interesting
boy - girl
boy - man
break - fix
bride - groom
bring - remove
buy - sell
calm - emotional
careful - careless
casual - formal
centre - edge
cheerful - grumpy
cheers - jeers
close to - away from
cold - hot
colour – colourless
combined - separated
come - go
comedy - tragedy
confident - worried
correct - incorrect
courteous - rude
crazy - lucid
create - destroy
crooked - straight
curly - straight
damage - repair
day - night
drunk - sober
dry - wet
East - West
easy - hard
empty - full
enlarge - reduce
expand - contract
fat – skinny/thin/slim
first - last
float - sink
front - back
frozen - melted
giant - midget
girl - woman
give - take
good - bad
Grandma - Grandad
grow - shrink
guys & gals (slang)
hairy - bald
happy - sad
hard - soft
head - feet
heads - tails
Heaven - Hell
help - hinder
hero - villain
hide - seek
high - low
his - her
hit - miss
hot - cold
huge - tiny
ill - well
in - out
in front - in back
insane - sane
into - out of
King - Queen
Ladies - Gentlemen
large - small
laugh - cry
lead - follow
left - right
life - death
light - dark
lit - unlit
long - short
lots - little bit
love - hate
make - ruin
man - woman
many - few
maximise - minimise
me - you
Men - Women
Mum - Dad
more - less
most - least
Mother - Father
moving - still
multiplication - division
multiply - divide
naked - clothed
near - far
neat - messy
new - old
normal - strange
North - South
off - on
open - close
open - shut
order – chaos/mayhem
outside - inside
over - under
pass - fail
plain - fancy
plump - lean
plus - minus
polite - impolite
positive - negative
pretty - ugly
proud - disappointed
push - pull
quiet - loud
raw - cooked
real - imaginary
real - pretend
rich - poor
right - wrong
same - different
scared - brave
send - receive
shallow - deep
sick - healthy
silent - noisy
simple - complicated
simple - difficult
Sister - Brother
slow - fast
smile - frown
some - none
son - daughter
Spring - Fall
stand - sit
stand up - sit down
stiff - limp
stingy - generous
stop - go
succeed - fail
success - failure
sun - moon
sweet - sour
take off - land
tall - short
throw - catch
tied - untied
to - from
together - apart
top - bottom
towards - away from
undressed - dressed
united - divided
up - down
us - them
walk - run
war - peace
whisper - shout
white - black
wide awake - sleepy
wild - tame
win - lose
work - play
wrap - unwrap
write - erase
yes - no
young - old
Examples of opposites.
Book of Opposites
A silk-screened book on opposites, using collaged portraits that are almost the same, but conveying two different meanings.
