How to Use Antonyms

Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings. Because humans are naturally able to find opposites, even children can use antonyms in the same way as adults can. When you use antonyms, the most important thing to do is to make sure the antonym you choose truly has an opposite meaning from the original word.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Turn to your thesaurus for antonym ideas. A thesaurus lists a word's antonyms and synonyms, but it often includes words that express a whole range of meanings. However, a thesaurus is a good place to start when you want to use antonyms.

2. Choose true opposites when you use antonyms. For example, if you want to use an antonym for "beautiful," you wouldn't want to choose the word "plain" since this word simply means the absence of beauty. Instead, you would need to use a word like "ugly" for the antonym, which expresses that the object has a quality that's the opposite of beauty.

3. Understand that some words have more than one antonym, and the antonyms may focus on different meanings of the word. If you read the word "light" as relating to weight, an antonym is "heavy." If you read the word "light" as relating to brightness, an antonym is "dark."

4. Realize that not all words have clear antonyms, and any antonym you create for them is subjective. Someone might, for example, see the antonym for "cat" as "dog," since people often think of these companions as opposites. However, another person might see the antonym for "cat" as "tiger" if they're thinking in terms of size. If you need to rely on your subjective opinion, you're probably not using an antonym.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're not sure if the exact shade of meaning, look up the original word or potential antonym in a dictionary.

Resources

• Test your antonym knowledge at Sadlier-Oxford.