English Synonyms and Antonyms

Reminiscence is a half-dreamy memory of scenes or events long past; retrospection is a distinct turning of the
mind back upon the past, bringing long periods under survey. Retrospection is to reminiscence much what
recollection is to remembrance.
Antonyms:
forgetfulness, oblivion, obliviousness, oversight, unconsciousness.
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MERCY.
Synonyms:
benevolence, favor, kindness, mildness, benignity, forbearance, lenience, pardon, blessing, forgiveness,
leniency, pity, clemency, gentleness, lenity, tenderness. compassion, grace,
Mercy is the exercise of less severity than one deserves, or in a more extended sense, the granting of kindness
or favor beyond what one may rightly claim. Grace is favor, kindness, or blessing shown to the undeserving;
forgiveness, mercy, and pardon are exercised toward the ill-deserving. Pardon remits the outward penalty
which the offender deserves; forgiveness dismisses resentment or displeasure from the heart of the one
offended; mercy seeks the highest possible good of the offender. There may be mercy without pardon, as in
the mitigation of sentence, or in all possible alleviation of necessary severity; there may be cases where
pardon would not be mercy, since it would encourage to repetition of the offense, from which timely
punishment might have saved. Mercy is also used in the wider sense of refraining from harshness or cruelty
toward those who are in one's power without fault of their own; as, they besought the robber to have mercy.
Clemency is a colder word than mercy, and without its religious associations, signifying mildness and
moderation in the use of power where severity would have legal or military, rather than moral sanction; it
often denotes a habitual mildness of disposition on the part of the powerful, and is matter rather of good nature
or policy than of principle. Leniency or lenity denotes an easy-going avoidance of severity; these words are
more general and less magisterial than clemency; we should speak of the leniency of a parent, the clemency of
a conqueror. Compare PITY.
Antonyms:
cruelty, implacability, punishment, rigor, sternness, hardness, justice, revenge, severity, vengeance. harshness,
penalty,
Prepositions:
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The mercy of God to or toward sinners; have mercy on or upon one.
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METER.
Synonyms:
euphony, measure, rhythm, verse.
Euphony is agreeable linguistic sound, however produced; meter, measure, and rhythm denote agreeable
succession of sounds in the utterance of connected words; euphony may apply to a single word or even a
single syllable; the other words apply to lines, sentences, paragraphs, etc.; rhythm and meter may be produced
by accent only, as in English, or by accent and quantity combined, as in Greek or Italian; rhythm or measure
may apply either to prose or to poetry, or to music, dancing, etc.; meter is more precise than rhythm, applies
only to poetry, and denotes a measured rhythm with regular divisions into verses, stanzas, strophes, etc. A
verse is strictly a metrical line, but the word is often used as synonymous with stanza. Verse, in the general
sense, denotes metrical writing without reference to the thought involved; as, prose and verse. Compare
MELODY; POETRY.
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MIND.
Synonyms:
brain, instinct, reason, spirit, consciousness, intellect, sense, thought, disposition, intelligence, soul,
understanding.
Mind, in a general sense, includes all the powers of sentient being apart from the physical factors in bodily
faculties and activities; in a limited sense, mind is nearly synonymous with intellect, but includes disposition,
or the tendency toward action, as appears in the phrase "to have a mind to work." As the seat of mental
activity, brain (colloquially brains) is often used as a synonym for mind, intellect, intelligence. Thought, the
act, process, or power of thinking, is often used to denote the thinking faculty, and especially the reason. The
instinct of animals is now held by many philosophers to be of the same nature as the intellect of man, but
inferior and limited; yet the apparent difference is very great.
An instinct is a propensity prior to experience and independent of instruction.
PALEY Natural Philosophy ch. 18.
In this sense we speak of human instincts, thus denoting tendencies independent of reasoning or instruction.
The soul includes the intellect, sensibilities, and will; beyond what is expressed by the word mind, the soul
denotes especially the moral, the immortal nature; we say of a dead body, the soul (not the mind) has fled.
Spirit is used especially in contradistinction from matter; it may in many cases be substituted for soul, but soul
has commonly a fuller and more determinate meaning; we can conceive of spirits as having no moral nature;
the fairies, elves, and brownies of mythology might be termed spirits, but not souls. In the figurative sense,
spirit denotes animation, excitability, perhaps impatience; as, a lad of spirit; he sang with spirit; he replied
with spirit. Soul denotes energy and depth of feeling, as when we speak of soulful eyes; or it may denote the
very life of anything; as, "the hidden soul of harmony," MILTON L'Allegro l. 144. Sense may be an antonym
of intellect, as when we speak of the sense of hearing; but sense is used also as denoting clear mental action,
good judgment, acumen; as, he is a man of sense, or, he showed good sense; sense, even in its material
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signification, must be reckoned among the activities of mind, tho dependent on bodily functions; the mind, not
the eye, really sees; the mind, not the ear, really hears. Consciousness includes all that a sentient being
perceives, knows, thinks, or feels, from whatever source arising and of whatever character, kind, or degree,
whether with or without distinct thinking, feeling, or willing; we speak of the consciousness of the brute, of
the savage, or of the sage. The intellect is that assemblage of faculties which is concerned with knowledge, as
distinguished from emotion and volition. Understanding is the Saxon word of the same general import, but is
chiefly used of the reasoning powers; the understanding, which Sir Wm. Hamilton has called "the faculty of
relations and comparisons," is distinguished by many philosophers from reason in that "reason is the faculty
of the higher cognitions or a priori truth."
Antonyms:
body, brawn, brute force, material substance, matter.
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MINUTE.
Synonyms:
circumstantial, diminutive, little, slender, comminuted, exact, particular, small, critical, fine, precise, tiny.
detailed,
That is minute which is of exceedingly limited dimensions, as a grain of dust, or which attends to matters of
exceedingly slight amount or apparent importance; as, a minute account; minute observation. That which is
broken up into minute particles is said to be comminuted; things may be termed fine which would not be
termed comminuted; as, fine sand; fine gravel; but, in using the adverb, we say a substance is finely
comminuted, comminuted referring more to the process, fine to the result. An account extended to very minute