English Synonyms and Antonyms

order. The most perfect order is often secured with least regularity, as in a fine essay or oration. The same
may be said of system. There is a regularity of dividing a treatise into topics, paragraphs, and sentences, that is
destructive of true rhetorical system. Compare HABIT; HYPOTHESIS.
Antonyms:
chaos, derangement, disarrangement, disorder, irregularity. confusion,
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TACITURN.
Synonyms:
close, mute, reticent, speechless, dumb, reserved, silent, uncommunicative.
Dumb, mute, silent and speechless refer to fact or state; taciturn refers to habit and disposition. The talkative
person may be stricken dumb with surprise or terror; the obstinate may remain mute; one may be silent
through preoccupation of mind or of set purpose; but the taciturn person is averse to the utterance of thought
or feeling and to communication with others, either from natural disposition or for the occasion. One who is
silent does not speak at all; one who is taciturn speaks when compelled, but in a grudging way that repels
further approach. Reserved suggests more of method and intention than taciturn, applying often to some
special time or topic; one who is communicative regarding all else may be reserved about his business.
Reserved is thus closely equivalent to uncommunicative, but is a somewhat stronger word, often suggesting
pride or haughtiness, as when we say one is reserved toward inferiors. Compare PRIDE.
Antonyms:
communicative, free, garrulous, loquacious, talkative, unreserved.
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
280

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TASTEFUL.
Synonyms:
artistic, delicate, esthetic, fastidious, nice, chaste, delicious, esthetical, fine, tasty. dainty, elegant, exquisite,
Elegant (L. elegans, select) refers to that assemblage of qualities which makes anything choice to persons of
culture and refinement; it refers to the lighter, finer elements of beauty in form or motion, especially denoting
that which exhibits faultless taste and perfection of finish. That which is elegant is made so not merely by
nature, but by art and culture; a woodland dell may be beautiful or picturesque, but would not ordinarily be
termed elegant. Tasteful refers to that in which the element of taste is more prominent, standing, as it were,
more by itself, while in elegant it is blended as part of the whole. Tasty is an inferior word, used colloquially
in a similar sense. Chaste (primarily pure), denotes in literature and art that which is true to the higher and
finer feelings and free from all excess or meretricious ornament. Dainty and delicate refer to the lighter and
finer elements of taste and beauty, dainty tending in personal use to an excessive scrupulousness which is
more fully expressed by fastidious. Nice and delicate both refer to exact adaptation to some standard; the bar
of a balance can be said to be nicely or delicately poised; as regards matters of taste and beauty, delicate is a
higher and more discriminating word than nice, and is always used in a favorable sense; a delicate distinction
is one worth observing; a nice distinction may be so, or may be overstrained and unduly subtle; fine in such
use, is closely similar to delicate and nice, but (tho capable of an unfavorable sense) has commonly a
suggestion of positive excellence or admirableness; a fine touch does something; fine perceptions are to some
purpose; delicate is capable of the single unfavorable sense of frail or fragile; as, a delicate constitution.