English Synonyms and Antonyms

signs of distress to the casual observer, but signals of distress are a distinct appeal for aid. A symptom is a
vital phenomenon resulting from a diseased condition; in medical language a sign is an indication of any
physical condition, whether morbid or healthy; thus, a hot skin and rapid pulse are symptoms of pneumonia;
dulness of some portion of the lungs under percussion is one of the physical signs. Compare AUGUR;
CHARACTERISTIC; EMBLEM.
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SIN.
Synonyms:
crime, fault, misdeed, vice, criminality, guilt, offense, viciousness, delinquency, ill-doing, transgression,
wickedness, depravity, immorality, ungodliness, wrong, evil, iniquity, unrighteousness, wrong-doing.
Sin is any lack of holiness, any defect of moral purity and truth, whether in heart or life, whether of
commission or omission. "All unrighteousness is sin," 1 John v, 17. Transgression, as its etymology indicates,
is the stepping over a specific enactment, whether of God or man, ordinarily by overt act, but in the broadest
sense, in volition or desire. Sin may be either act or state; transgression is always an act, mental or physical.
Crime is often used for a flagrant violation of right, but in the technical sense denotes specific violation of
human law. Guilt is desert of and exposure to punishment because of sin. Depravity denotes not any action,
but a perverted moral condition from which any act of sin may proceed. Sin in the generic sense, as denoting a
state of heart, is synonymous with depravity; in the specific sense, as in the expression a sin, the term may be
synonymous with transgression, crime, offense, misdeed, etc., or may denote some moral activity that could
not be characterized by terms so positive. Immorality denotes outward violation of the moral law. Sin is thus
the broadest word, and immorality next in scope; all crimes, properly so called, and all immoralities, are sins;
but there may be sin, as ingratitude, which is neither crime, transgression, nor immorality; and there may be
immorality which is not crime, as falsehood. Compare CRIMINAL.
Antonyms:
blamelessness, goodness, integrity, rectitude, sinlessness, excellence, holiness, morality, right, uprightness,
godliness, innocence, purity, righteousness, virtue.
Compare synonyms for VIRTUE.
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SING.
Synonyms:
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
266

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carol, chant, chirp, chirrup, hum, warble.
To sing is primarily and ordinarily to utter a succession of articulate musical sounds with the human voice.
The word has come to include any succession of musical sounds; we say the bird or the rivulet sings; we
speak of "the singing quality" of an instrument, and by still wider extension of meaning we say the teakettle or
the cricket sings. To chant is to sing in solemn and somewhat uniform cadence; chant is ordinarily applied to
non-metrical religious compositions. To carol is to sing joyously, and to warble (kindred with whirl) is to sing
with trills or quavers, usually also with the idea of joy. Carol and warble are especially applied to the singing
of birds. To chirp is to utter a brief musical sound, perhaps often repeated in the same key, as by certain small
birds, insects, etc. To chirrup is to utter a somewhat similar sound; the word is often used of a brief, sharp
sound uttered as a signal to animate or rouse a horse or other animal. To hum is to utter murmuring sounds
with somewhat monotonous musical cadence, usually with closed lips; we speak also of the hum of
machinery, etc.
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SKEPTIC.
Synonyms:
agnostic, deist, doubter, infidel, unbeliever. atheist, disbeliever, freethinker,
The skeptic doubts divine revelation; the disbeliever and the unbeliever reject it, the disbeliever with more of
intellectual dissent, the unbeliever (in the common acceptation) with indifference or with opposition of heart
as well as of intellect. Infidel is an opprobrious term that might once almost have been said to be geographical
in its range. The Crusaders called all Mohammedans infidels, and were so called by them in return; the word
is commonly applied to any decided opponent of an accepted religion. The atheist denies that there is a God;
the deist admits the existence of God, but denies that the Christian Scriptures are a revelation from him; the