Synonyms

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Words that have meanings closely matching or nearly identical to each other
2. Terms expressing similar ideas or concepts that can often be used interchangeably
3. Different words conveying the same or very similar meanings in various contexts

Etymology: The Greek compound "sunōnumos" meant "with the same name" or "named alike," built from "sun" ("with") and "onoma" ("name"). Greek grammarians and philosophers used it to describe things that shared a name, and the neuter form "sunōnumon" became the Latin "synonymum," which passed into Middle English as "sinonyme" and eventually settled into the modern spelling. The word itself is therefore a plain compound, and its surface parts, "syn-" and "-onym," still show their Greek origins. The "-onym" element survives in other coinages such as "antonym" and "pseudonym," where it keeps the sense of a name or term.

Synonyms: equivalents, substitutes, analogues, counterparts, similar words