What is an antonym?
Antonyms are words which mean the opposite to something.
For example:
Good – Bad
Hot – Cold
Tall – short
These are all ‘antonyms’.
‘Anti’ is Greek for opposite and ‘onym’ means name, like in the word ‘pseduonym’ (a fake name).
Some antonyms are well known such as ‘good-bad’, ‘hot-cold’, ‘tall-short’ etc.
Many antonyms are formed by adding a prefix to the original word.
Let’s look at antonyms formed with the prefix ‘un’.
ANTONYMS STARTING WITH ‘un’
happy – unhappy
believable – unbelievable
Likely – unlikely
ANTONYMS STARTING WITH ‘ im’
possible – impossible
practical – impractical
ANTONYMS STARTING WITH ‘mis’
understand – misunderstand
spell – misspell
place – misplace
ANTONYMS STARTING WITH ‘dis’
honest – dishonest
agree – disagree
Some example sentences.
- They must help everyone be they rich or poor.
- We must all respect everyone be they black or white.
- That food can be eaten hot or cold.
Using pairs of antonyms can be good in writing or more eloquent language or even poetry.
