Antonyms

What is an antonym?

An antonym is a word that is opposite in meaning to another word.

Examples of Antonyms

Study the list of antonyms below. Notice that each word has the opposite meaning to the word next to it.

Some words have more than one antonym. For example, the words small, tiny and little are all antonyms for the word big. Can you think of any more words that have opposite meanings?

Why should we use antonyms?

We can use antonyms in our writing when we want to show that two things are very different from each other. Read the paragraph below:

The day of the kite flying competition had finally come. I ran all the way to the field holding my kite gently in my hands. As I ran onto the field I noticed Tim was already there. I looked at Tim’s kite. It was big, bright and beautiful. My kite was small, dull and ugly. I felt a little jealous. 

In the paragraph above, we used antonyms to show that the two kites were very different.

How can I find antonyms?

If you need to find antonyms for a word, one way to do this is to use a thesaurus. You can even find a thesaurus on the internet. All you have to do is to type a word in the search bar and click search. You will get a list of synonyms and antonyms. The list of synonyms is at the top. You will have to scroll down to find the antonyms. Click here to use an online thesaurus. The thesaurus will open in a new tab.

Give it a try!

Now that you have opened the online thesaurus, use it to find antonyms for the following words:

• arrive
• careful
• difficult
• like
• neat