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English Synonyms and Antonyms

<h3>WANDER.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>deviate,</td><td>diverge,</td><td>go astray,</td><td>range,</td><td>rove,</td><td>swerve,</td></tr> <tr><td>digress,</td><td>err,</td><td>ramble,</td><td>roam,</td><td>stray,</td><td>veer.</td></tr> </table> To wander (AS. windan, wind) is to move in an indefinite or indeterminate way which may or may not be a departure from a prescribed way; to deviate (L. de, from, and via, a way) is to turn from a prescribed or right way, physically, mentally, or morally, usually in an unfavorable sense; to diverge (L. di, apart, and vergo, incline, tend) is to turn from a course previously followed or that something else follows, and has no unfavorable implication; to digress (L. di, apart, aside, and gradior, step) is used only with reference to speaking or writing; to err is used of intellectual or moral action, and of the moral with primary reference to the intellectual, an error being viewed as in some degree due to ignorance. Range, roam, and rove imply the traversing of considerable, often of vast, distances of land or sea; range commonly implies a purpose; as, cattle range for food; a hunting-dog ranges a field for game. Roam and rove are often purposeless, and always without definite aim. To swerve or veer is to turn suddenly from a prescribed or previous course, and often but momentarily; veer is more capricious and repetitious; the horse swerves at the flash of a sword; the wind veers; the ship veers with the wind. To stray is to go in a somewhat purposeless way aside from the regular path or usual limits or abode, usually with unfavorable implication; cattle stray from their pastures; an author strays from his subject; one strays from the path of virtue. Stray is in most uses a lighter word than wander. Ramble, in its literal use, is always a word of pleasant suggestion, but in its figurative use always somewhat contemptuous; as, rambling talk. <hr /> <h3>WAY.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>alley,</td><td>course,</td><td>lane,</td><td>path,</td><td>route,</td></tr> <tr><td>avenue,</td><td>driveway,</td><td>pass,</td><td>pathway,</td><td>street,</td></tr> <tr><td>bridle-path,</td><td>highroad,</td><td>passage,</td><td>road,</td><td>thoroughfare,</td></tr> <tr><td>channel,</td><td>highway,</td><td>passageway,</td><td>roadway,</td><td>track.</td></tr> </table> Wherever there is room for one object to pass another there is a way. A road (originally a rideway) is a prepared way for traveling with horses or vehicles, always the latter unless the contrary is expressly stated; a way suitable to be traversed only by foot-passengers or by animals is called a path, bridle-path, or track; as, the roads in that country are mere bridle-paths. A road may be private; a highway or highroad is public, highway being a specific name for a road legally set apart for the use of the public forever; a highway may be over water as well as over land. A route is a line of travel, and may be over many roads. A street is in some center of habitation, as a city, town, or village; when it passes between rows of dwellings the country road becomes the village street. An avenue is a long, broad, and imposing or principal street. Track is a word of wide signification; we speak of a goat-track on a mountain-side, a railroad-track, a race-track, the track of a comet; on a traveled road the line worn by regular passing of hoofs and wheels in either direction is called the track. A passage is between any two objects or lines of enclosure, a pass commonly between mountains. A driveway is within enclosed grounds, as of a private residence. A channel is a waterway. A thoroughfare is a way through; a road or street temporarily or permanently closed at any point ceases for such time to be a thoroughfare. Compare AIR; DIRECTION. <hr /> <h3>WISDOM.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>attainment,</td><td>insight,</td><td>prudence,</td></tr> <tr><td>depth,</td><td>judgment,</td><td>reason,</td></tr> <tr><td>discernment,</td><td>judiciousness,</td><td>reasonableness,</td></tr> <tr><td>discretion,</td><td>knowledge,</td><td>sagacity,</td></tr> <tr><td>enlightenment,</td><td>learning,</td><td>sense,</td></tr> <tr><td>erudition,</td><td>prescience,</td><td>skill,</td></tr> <tr><td>foresight,</td><td>profundity,</td><td>understanding.</td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3">information,</td></tr> </table> Enlightenment, erudition, information, knowledge, learning, and skill are acquired, as by study or practise. Insight, judgment, profundity or depth, reason, sagacity, sense, and understanding are native qualities of mind, tho capable of increase by cultivation. The other qualities are on the border-line. Wisdom has been defined as "the right use of knowledge," or "the use of the most important means for attaining the best ends," wisdom thus presupposing knowledge for its very existence and exercise. Wisdom is mental power acting upon the materials that fullest knowledge gives in the most effective way. There may be what is termed "practical wisdom" that looks only to material results; but in its full sense, wisdom implies the highest and noblest exercise of all the faculties of the moral nature as well as of the intellect. Prudence is a lower and more negative form of the same virtue, respecting outward and practical matters, and largely with a view of avoiding loss and injury; wisdom transcends prudence, so that while the part of prudence is ordinarily also that of wisdom, cases arise, as in the exigencies of business or of war, when the highest wisdom is in the disregard of the maxims of prudence. Judgment, the power of forming decisions, especially correct decisions, is broader and more positive than prudence, leading one to do, as readily as to refrain from doing; but judgment is more limited in range and less exalted in character than wisdom; to say of one that he displayed good judgment is much less than to say that he manifested wisdom. Skill is far inferior to wisdom, consisting largely in the practical application of acquired knowledge, power, and habitual processes, or in the ingenious contrivance that makes such application possible. In the making of something perfectly useless there may be great skill, but no wisdom. Compare ACUMEN; ASTUTE; KNOWLEDGE; MIND; PRUDENCE; SAGACIOUS; SKILFUL. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>absurdity,</td><td>folly,</td><td>imbecility,</td><td>miscalculation,</td><td>senselessness,</td></tr> <tr><td>error,</td><td>foolishness,</td><td>imprudence,</td><td>misjudgment,</td><td>silliness,</td></tr> <tr><td>fatuity,</td><td>idiocy,</td><td>indiscretion,</td><td>nonsense,</td><td>stupidity.</td></tr> </table> Compare synonyms for ABSURD; IDIOCY. <hr /> <h3>WIT.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td align="left">banter,</td><td align="left">fun,</td><td align="left">joke,</td><td align="left">waggery,</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">burlesque,</td><td align="left">humor,</td><td align="left">playfulness,</td><td align="left">waggishness,</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">drollery,</td><td align="left">jest,</td><td align="left">pleasantry,</td><td align="left">witticism.</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">facetiousness,</td><td align="left">jocularity,</td><td colspan="2">raillery,</td></tr> </table> Wit is the quick perception of unusual or commonly unperceived analogies or relations between things apparently unrelated, and has been said to depend upon a union of surprise and pleasure; it depends certainly on the production of a diverting, entertaining, or merrymaking surprise. The analogies with which wit plays are often superficial or artificial; humor deals with real analogies of an amusing or entertaining kind, or with traits of character that are seen to have a comical side as soon as brought to view. Wit is keen, sudden, brief, and sometimes severe; humor is deep, thoughtful, sustained, and always kindly. Pleasantry is lighter and less vivid than wit. Fun denotes the merry results produced by wit and humor, or by any fortuitous occasion of mirth, and is pronounced and often hilarious. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td align="left">dulness,</td><td align="left">seriousness,</td><td align="left">sobriety,</td><td align="left">solemnity,</td><td align="left">stolidity,</td><td align="left">stupidity.</td></tr> <tr><td colspan="6">gravity,</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>WORK.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td align="left">achievement,</td><td align="left">doing,</td><td align="left">labor,</td><td align="left">product,</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">action,</td><td align="left">drudgery,</td><td align="left">occupation,</td><td align="left">production,</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">business,</td><td align="left">employment,</td><td align="left">performance,</td><td align="left">toil.</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">deed,</td><td colspan="3">exertion.</td></tr> </table> Work is the generic term for any continuous application of energy toward an end; work may be hard or easy. Labor is hard and wearying work; toil is straining and exhausting work. Work is also used for any result of working, physical or mental, and has special senses, as in mechanics, which labor and toil do not share. Drudgery is plodding, irksome, and often menial work. Compare ACT; BUSINESS. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td align="left">ease,</td><td align="left">idleness,</td><td align="left">leisure,</td><td align="left">recreation,</td><td align="left">relaxation,</td><td align="left">repose,</td><td align="left">rest,</td><td align="left">vacation.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>YET.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td align="left">besides,</td><td align="left">further,</td><td align="left">hitherto,</td><td align="left">now,</td><td align="left">still,</td><td align="left">thus far.</td></tr> </table> Yet and still have many closely related senses, and, with verbs of past time, are often interchangeable; we may say "while he was yet a child," or "while he was still a child." Yet, like still, often applies to past action or state extending to and including the present time, especially when joined with as; we can say "he is feeble as yet," or "he is still feeble," with scarcely appreciable difference of meaning, except that the former statement implies somewhat more of expectation than the latter. Yet with a negative applies to completed action, often replacing a positive statement with still; "he is not gone yet" is nearly the same as "he is here still." Yet has a reference to the future which still does not share; "we may be successful yet" implies that success may begin at some future time; "we may be successful still" implies that we may continue to enjoy in the future such success as we are winning now. <hr /> <h3>YOUTHFUL.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td align="left">adolescent,</td><td align="left">callow,</td><td align="left">childlike,</td><td align="left">immature,</td><td align="left">puerile,</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">boyish,</td><td align="left">childish,</td><td align="left">girlish,</td><td align="left">juvenile,</td><td align="left">young.</td></tr> </table> Boyish, childish, and girlish are used in a good sense of those to whom they properly belong, but in a bad sense of those from whom more maturity is to be expected; childish eagerness or glee is pleasing in a child, but unbecoming in a man; puerile in modern use is distinctly contemptuous. Juvenile and youthful are commonly used in a favorable and kindly sense in their application to those still young; youthful in the sense of having the characteristics of youth, hence fresh, vigorous, light-hearted, buoyant, may have a favorable import as applied to any age, as when we say the old man still retains his youthful ardor, vigor, or hopefulness; juvenile in such use would belittle the statement. Young is distinctively applied to those in the early stage of life or not arrived at maturity. Compare NEW. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> Compare synonyms for OLD. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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