English Synonyms and Antonyms

mercenary and venal may be simply open to the bargain and sale which the hireling has already
consummated; a clergyman may be mercenary in making place and pay of undue importance while not venal
enough to forsake his own communion for another for any reward that could be offered him. The mercenary
may retain much show of independence; hireling service sacrifices self-respect as well as principle; a public
officer who makes his office tributary to private speculation in which he is interested is mercenary; if he
receives a stipulated recompense for administering his office at the behest of some leader, faction,
corporation, or the like, he is both hireling and venal; if he gives essential advantages for pay, without
subjecting himself to any direct domination, his course is venal, but not hireling. Compare PAY; VENIAL.
Antonyms:
disinterested, honest, incorruptible, public-spirited, generous, honorable, patriotic, unpurchasable.
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VENERATE.
Synonyms:
adore, honor, respect, revere, reverence.
In the highest sense, to revere or reverence is to hold in mingled love and honor with something of sacred
fear, as for that which while lovely is sublimely exalted and brings upon us by contrast a sense of our
unworthiness or inferiority; to revere is a wholly spiritual act; to reverence is often, tho not necessarily, to
give outward expression to the reverential feeling; we revere or reverence the divine majesty. Revere is a
stronger word than reverence or venerate. To venerate is to hold in exalted honor without fear, and is applied
to objects less removed from ourselves than those we revere, being said especially of aged persons, of places
or objects having sacred associations, and of abstractions; we venerate an aged pastor, the dust of heroes or
martyrs, lofty virtue or self-sacrifice, or some great cause, as that of civil or religious liberty; we do not
venerate God, but revere or reverence him. We adore with a humble yet free outflowing of soul. Compare
VENERATION.
Antonyms:
contemn, detest, dishonor, scoff at, slight, despise, disdain, disregard, scorn, spurn.
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VENERATION.
Synonyms:
adoration, awe, dread, reverence.
Awe is inspired by that in which there is sublimity or majesty so overwhelming as to awaken a feeling akin to
fear; in awe, considered by itself, there is no element of esteem or affection, tho the sense of vastness, power,
or grandeur in the object is always present. Dread is a shrinking apprehension or expectation of possible harm
awakened by any one of many objects or causes, from that which is overwhelmingly vast and mighty to that
which is productive of momentary physical pain; in its higher uses dread approaches the meaning of awe, but
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
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with more of chilliness and cowering, and without that subjection of soul to the grandeur and worthiness of
the object that is involved in awe. Awe is preoccupied with the object that inspires it; dread with apprehension
of personal consequences. Reverence and veneration are less overwhelming than awe or dread, and suggest
something of esteem, affection, and personal nearness. We may feel awe of that which we can not reverence,
as a grandly terrible ocean storm; awe of the divine presence is more distant and less trustful than reverence.
Veneration is commonly applied to things which are not subjects of awe. Adoration, in its full sense, is loftier
than veneration, less restrained and awed than reverence, and with more of the spirit of direct, active, and
joyful worship. Compare ESTEEM; VENERATE.
Antonyms:
contempt, disdain, dishonor, disregard, scorn.
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VENIAL.
Synonyms:
excusable, pardonable, slight, trivial.