English Synonyms and Antonyms

verbal and literal are opposed to free. In the same sense, of attending to words only, we speak of verbal
criticism, a verbal change. Vocal has primary reference to the human voice; as, vocal sounds, vocal music;
vocal may be applied within certain limits to inarticulate sounds given forth by other animals than man; as, the
woods were vocal with the songs of birds; oral is never so applied, but is limited to articulate utterance
regarded as having a definite meaning; as, an oral statement.
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VICTORY.
Synonyms:
achievement, conquest, success, triumph. advantage, mastery, supremacy,
Victory is the state resulting from the overcoming of an opponent or opponents in any contest, or from the
overcoming of difficulties, obstacles, evils, etc., considered as opponents or enemies. In the latter sense any
hard-won achievement, advantage, or success may be termed a victory. In conquest and mastery there is
implied a permanence of state that is not implied in victory. Triumph, originally denoting the public rejoicing
in honor of a victory, has come to signify also a peculiarly exultant, complete, and glorious victory. Compare
CONQUER.
Antonyms:
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defeat, disappointment, failure, miscarriage, retreat, destruction, disaster, frustration, overthrow, rout.
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VIGILANT.
Synonyms:
alert, cautious, on the lookout, wary, awake, circumspect, sleepless, watchful, careful, on the alert, wakeful,
wide-awake.
Vigilant implies more sustained activity and more intelligent volition than alert; one may be habitually alert
by reason of native quickness of perception and thought, or one may be momentarily alert under some
excitement or expectancy; one who is vigilant is so with thoughtful purpose. One is vigilant against danger or
harm; he may be alert or watchful for good as well as against evil; he is wary in view of suspected stratagem,
trickery, or treachery. A person may be wakeful because of some merely physical excitement or excitability,
as through insomnia; yet he may be utterly careless and negligent in his wakefulness, the reverse of watchful;
a person who is truly watchful must keep himself wakeful while on watch, in which case wakeful has
something of mental quality. Watchful, from the Saxon, and vigilant, from the Latin, are almost exact
equivalents; but vigilant has somewhat more of sharp definiteness and somewhat more suggestion of volition;
one may be habitually watchful; one is vigilant of set purpose and for direct cause, as in the presence of an
enemy. Compare ALERT.
Antonyms:
careless, heedless, inconsiderate, oblivious, drowsy, inattentive, neglectful, thoughtless, dull, incautious,
negligent, unwary.
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VIRTUE.
Synonyms:
chastity, honesty, probity, truth, duty, honor, purity, uprightness, excellence, integrity, rectitude, virtuousness,
faithfulness, justice, righteousness, worth, goodness, morality, rightness, worthiness.
Virtue (L. virtus, primarily manly strength or courage, from vir, a man, a hero) is, in its full sense, goodness
that is victorious through trial, perhaps through temptation and conflict. Goodness, the being morally good,
may be much less than virtue, as lacking the strength that comes from trial and conflict, or it may be very
much more than virtue, as rising sublimely above the possibility of temptation and conflict--the infantile as
contrasted with the divine goodness. Virtue is distinctively human; we do not predicate it of God. Morality is
conformity to the moral law in action, whether in matters concerning ourselves or others, whether with or
without right principle. Honesty and probity are used especially of one's relations to his fellow men, probity
being to honesty much what virtue in some respects is to goodness; probity is honesty tried and proved,
especially in those things that are beyond the reach of legal requirement; above the commercial sense, honesty
may be applied to the highest truthfulness of the soul to and with itself and its Maker. Integrity, in the full
sense, is moral wholeness without a flaw; when used, as it often is, of contracts and dealings, it has reference
to inherent character and principle, and denotes much more than superficial or conventional honesty. Honor is
a lofty honesty that scorns fraud or wrong as base and unworthy of itself. Honor rises far above thought of the
motto that "honesty is the best policy." Purity is freedom from all admixture, especially of that which debases;
it is chastity both of heart and life, but of the life because from the heart. Duty, the rendering of what is due to
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any person or in any relation, is, in this connection, the fulfilment of moral obligation. Rectitude and