English Synonyms and Antonyms

partisan. Backer is a sporting and theatrical word, personal in its application, and not in the best usage.
Compare ACCESSORY.
Antonyms:
adversary, betrayer, enemy, opponent, traitor. antagonist, deserter, hater, renegade,
Prepositions:
Adherents to principle; adherents of Luther.
* * * * *
ADHESIVE.
Synonyms:
cohesive, gummy, sticky, viscous. glutinous, sticking, viscid,
Adhesive is the scientific, sticking or sticky the popular word. That which is adhesive tends to join itself to the
surface of any other body with which it is placed in contact; cohesive expresses the tendency of particles of
the same substance to hold together. Polished plate glass is not adhesive, but such plates packed together are
intensely cohesive. An adhesive plaster is in popular language a sticking-plaster. Sticky expresses a more
limited, and generally annoying, degree of the same quality. Glutinous, gummy, viscid, and viscous are applied
to fluid or semi-fluid substances, as pitch or tar.
Antonyms:
free, inadhesive, loose, separable.
Preposition:
The stiff, wet clay, adhesive to the foot, impeded progress.
* * * * *
ADJACENT.
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
23

---

Synonyms:
abutting, bordering, contiguous, neighboring, adjoining, close, coterminous, next, attached, conterminous,
near, nigh. beside,
Adjacent farms may not be connected; if adjoining, they meet at the boundary-line. Conterminous would
imply that their dimensions were exactly equal on the side where they adjoin. Contiguous may be used for
either adjacent or adjoining. Abutting refers rather to the end of one building or estate than to the
neighborhood of another. Buildings may be adjacent or adjoining that are not attached. Near is a relative
word, places being called near upon the railroad which would elsewhere be deemed remote. Neighboring
always implies such proximity that the inhabitants may be neighbors. Next views some object as the nearest of
several or many; next neighbor implies a neighborhood.
Antonyms:
detached, disconnected, disjoined, distant, remote, separate.
Preposition:
The farm was adjacent to the village.
* * * * *
ADMIRE.
Synonyms:
adore, delight in, extol, respect, venerate, applaud, enjoy, honor, revere, wonder. approve, esteem, love,
In the old sense of wonder, admire is practically obsolete; the word now expresses a delight and approval, in
which the element of wonder unconsciously mingles. We admire beauty in nature and art, delight in the
innocent happiness of children, enjoy books or society, a walk or a dinner. We approve what is excellent,
applaud heroic deeds, esteem the good, love our friends. We honor and respect noble character wherever
found; we revere and venerate it in the aged. We extol the goodness and adore the majesty and power of God.
Antonyms:
abhor, contemn, detest, execrate, ridicule, abominate, despise, dislike, hate, scorn.
Preposition:
Admire at may still very rarely be found in the old sense of wonder at.
* * * * *
ADORN.
Synonyms:
beautify, decorate, garnish, illustrate, bedeck, embellish, gild, ornament. deck,
To embellish is to brighten and enliven by adding something that is not necessarily or very closely connected
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
24

---

with that to which it is added; to illustrate is to add something so far like in kind as to cast a side-light upon
the principal matter. An author embellishes his narrative with fine descriptions, the artist illustrates it with
beautiful engravings, the binder gilds and decorates the volume. Garnish is on a lower plane; as, the feast was