English Synonyms and Antonyms

Pain is the most general term of this group, including all the others; pain is a disturbing sensation from which
nature revolts, resulting from some injurious external interference (as from a wound, a bruise, a harsh word,
etc.), or from some lack of what one needs, craves, or cherishes (as, the pain of hunger or bereavement), or
from some abnormal action of bodily or mental functions (as, the pains of disease, envy, or discontent).
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
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Suffering is one of the severer forms of pain. The prick of a needle causes pain, but we should scarcely speak
of it as suffering. Distress is too strong a word for little hurts, too feeble for the intensest suffering, but
commonly applied to some continuous or prolonged trouble or need; as, the distress of a shipwrecked crew, or
of a destitute family. Ache is lingering pain, more or less severe; pang, a pain short, sharp, intense, and
perhaps repeated. We speak of the pangs of hunger or of remorse. Throe is a violent and thrilling pain.
Paroxysm applies to an alternately recurring and receding pain, which comes as it were in waves; the
paroxysm is the rising of the wave. Torment and torture are intense and terrible sufferings. Agony and anguish
express the utmost pain or suffering of body or mind. Agony of body is that with which the system struggles;
anguish that by which it is crushed.
Antonyms:
comfort, delight, ease, enjoyment, peace, rapture, relief, solace.
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PALLIATE.
Synonyms:
apologize for, conceal, extenuate, hide, screen, cloak, cover, gloss over, mitigate, veil.
Cloak, from the French, and palliate, from the Latin, are the same in original signification, but have diverged
in meaning; a cloak may be used to hide completely the person or some object carried about the person, or it
may but partly veil the figure, making the outlines less distinct; cloak is used in the former, palliate, in the
latter sense; to cloak a sin is to attempt to hide it from discovery; to palliate it is to attempt to hide some part
of its blameworthiness. "When we palliate our own or others' faults we do not seek to cloke them altogether,
but only to extenuate the guilt of them in part." TRENCH Study of Words lect. vi, p. 266. Either to palliate or
to extenuate is to admit the fault; but to extenuate is rather to apologize for the offender, while to palliate is to
disguise the fault; hence, we speak of extenuating but not of palliating circumstances, since circumstances can
not change the inherent wrong of an act, tho they may lessen the blameworthiness of him who does it;
palliating a bad thing by giving it a mild name does not make it less evil. In reference to diseases, to palliate
is really to diminish their violence, or partly to relieve the sufferer. Compare ALLEVIATE; HIDE.
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PARDON, v.
Synonyms:
absolve, condone, forgive, pass by, remit. acquit, excuse, overlook, pass over,
To pardon is to let pass, as a fault or sin, without resentment, blame, or punishment. Forgive has reference to
feelings, pardon to consequences; hence, the executive may pardon, but has nothing to do officially with
forgiving. Personal injury may be forgiven by the person wronged; thus, God at once forgives and pardons;
the pardoned sinner is exempt from punishment; the forgiven sinner is restored to the divine favor. To pardon
is the act of a superior, implying the right to punish; to forgive is the privilege of the humblest person who has
been wronged or offended. In law, to remit the whole penalty is equivalent to pardoning the offender; but a