English Synonyms and Antonyms

permit what we expressly authorize. The noun permit implies a formal written permission. License is a formal
permission granted by competent authority to an individual to do some act or pursue some business which
would be or is made to be unlawful without such permission; as, a license to preach, to solemnize marriages,
or to sell intoxicating liquors. A license is permission granted rather than authority conferred; the sheriff has
authority (not permission nor license) to make an arrest. Consent is permission by the concurrence of wills in
two or more persons, a mutual approval or acceptance of something proposed. Compare ALLOW.
Antonyms:
denial, objection, prevention, refusal, resistance. hindrance, opposition, prohibition,
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PERNICIOUS.
Synonyms:
bad, evil, mischievous, pestilential, baneful, foul, noisome, poisonous, deadly, harmful, noxious, ruinous,
deleterious, hurtful, perverting, unhealthful, destructive, injurious, pestiferous, unwholesome. detrimental,
insalubrious,
Pernicious (L. per, through, and neco, kill) signifies having the power of destroying or injuring, tending to
hurt or kill. Pernicious is stronger than injurious; that which is injurious is capable of doing harm; that which
is pernicious is likely to be destructive. Noxious (L. noceo, hurt) is a stronger word than noisome, as referring
to that which is injurious or destructive. Noisome now always denotes that which is extremely disagreeable or
disgusting, especially to the sense of smell; as, the noisome stench proclaimed the presence of noxious gases.
Antonyms:
advantageous, favorable, helpful, profitable, serviceable, beneficent, good, invigorating, rejuvenating, useful,
beneficial, healthful, life-giving, salutary, wholesome.
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PERPLEXITY.
Synonyms:
amazement, bewilderment, distraction, doubt, astonishment, confusion, disturbance, embarrassment.
Perplexity (L. per, through, and plecto, plait) is the drawing or turning of the thoughts or faculties by turns in
different directions or toward contrasted or contradictory conclusions; confusion (L. confusus, from confundo,
pour together) is a state in which the mental faculties are, as it were, thrown into chaos, so that the clear and
distinct action of the different powers, as of perception, memory, reason, and will is lost; bewilderment is akin
to confusion, but is less overwhelming, and more readily recovered from; perplexity, accordingly, has not the
unsettling of the faculties implied in confusion, nor the overwhelming of the faculties implied in amazement
or astonishment; it is not the magnitude of the things to be known, but the want of full and definite
knowledge, that causes perplexity. The dividing of a woodland path may cause the traveler the greatest
perplexity, which may become bewilderment when he has tried one path after another and lost his bearings
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
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completely. With an excitable person bewilderment may deepen into confusion that will make him unable to
think clearly or even to see or hear distinctly. Amazement results from the sudden and unimagined occurrence
of great good or evil or the sudden awakening of the mind to unthought-of truth. Astonishment often produces
bewilderment, which the word was formerly understood to imply. Compare AMAZEMENT; ANXIETY;
DOUBT.
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PERSUADE.
Synonyms:
allure, dispose, incline, move, bring over, entice, induce, prevail on or upon, coax, impel, influence, urge,
convince, incite, lead, win over.
Of these words convince alone has no direct reference to moving the will, denoting an effect upon the
understanding only; one may be convinced of his duty without doing it, or he may be convinced of truth that
has no manifest connection with duty or action, as of a mathematical proposition. To persuade is to bring the
will of another to a desired decision by some influence exerted upon it short of compulsion; one may be