English Synonyms and Antonyms

 fling is careless and commonly pettish; a taunt is intentionally insulting and provoking; the sneer is
supercilious; the taunt is defiant. The jeer and gibe are uttered; the gibe is bitter, and often sly or covert; the
jeer is rude and open. A scoff may be in act or word, and is commonly directed against that which claims
honor, reverence, or worship. Compare BANTER.
Preposition:
Only an essentially vicious mind is capable of a sneer at virtue.
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SOCIALISM.
Synonyms:
collectivism, communism, fabianism.
Socialism, as defined by its advocates, is a theory of civil polity that aims to secure the reconstruction of
society, increase of wealth, and a more equal distribution of the products of labor through the public collective
ownership of land and capital (as distinguished from property), and the public collective management of all
industries. Its aim is extended industrial cooperation; socialism is a purely economic term, applying to
landownership and productive capital. Many socialists call themselves collectivists, and their system
collectivism. Communism would divide all things, including the profits of individual labor, among members of
the community; many of its advocates would abolish marriage and the family relation. Anarchism is properly
an antonym of socialism, as it would destroy, by violence if necessary, all existing government and social
order, leaving the future to determine what, if anything, should be raised upon their ruins.
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SOUND.
Synonyms:
noise, note, tone.
Sound is the sensation produced through the organs of hearing or the physical cause of this sensation. Sound is
the most comprehensive word of this group, applying to anything that is audible. Tone is sound considered as
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
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having some musical quality or as expressive of some feeling; noise is sound considered without reference to
musical quality or as distinctly unmusical or discordant. Thus, in the most general sense noise and sound
scarcely differ, and we say almost indifferently, "I heard a sound," or "I heard a noise." We speak of a fine,
musical, or pleasing sound, but never thus of a noise. In music, tone may denote either a musical sound or the
interval between two such sounds, but in the most careful usage the latter is now distinguished as the
"interval," leaving tone to stand only for the sound. Note in music strictly denotes the character representing a
sound, but in loose popular usage it denotes the sound also, and becomes practically equivalent to tone. Aside
from its musical use, tone is chiefly applied to that quality of the human voice by which feeling is expressed;
as, he spoke in a cheery tone; the word is similarly applied to the voices of birds and other animals, and
sometimes to inanimate objects. As used of a musical instrument, tone denotes the general quality of its
sounds collectively considered.
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SPEAK.
Synonyms:
announce, converse, discourse, say, articulate, declaim, enunciate, talk, chat, declare, express, tell, chatter,
deliver, pronounce, utter.
To utter is to give forth as an audible sound, articulate or not. To talk is to utter a succession of connected
words, ordinarily with the expectation of being listened to. To speak is to give articulate utterance even to a
single word; the officer speaks the word of command, but does not talk it. To speak is also to utter words with
the ordinary intonation, as distinguished from singing. To chat is ordinarily to utter in a familiar,
conversational way; to chatter is to talk in an empty, ceaseless way like a magpie.
Prepositions:
Speak to (address) a person; speak with a person (converse with him); speak of or about a thing (make it the
subject of remark); speak on or upon a subject; in parliamentary language, speak to the question.
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SPEECH.
Synonyms:
address, dissertation, oration, speaking, discourse, harangue, oratory, talk, disquisition, language, sermon,
utterance.