English Synonyms and Antonyms

Predestination is a previous determination or decision, which, in the divine action, reaches on from eternity.
Fate is heathen, an irresistible, irrational power determining all events with no manifest connection with
reason or righteousness; necessity is philosophical, a blind something in the nature of things binding the
slightest action or motion in the chain of inevitable, eternal sequence; foreordination and predestination are
Christian, denoting the rational and righteous order or decree of the supreme and all-wise God.
Foreknowledge is simply God's antecedent knowledge of all events, which some hold to be entirely separable
from his foreordination, while others hold foreordination to be inseparably involved in foreknowledge.
Antonyms:
accident, choice, freedom, independence, chance, free agency, free will, uncertainty.
Prepositions:
Predestination of believers to eternal life.
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PREJUDICE.
Synonyms:
bias, preconception, presumption, partiality, prepossession, unfairness.
A presumption (literally, a taking beforehand) is a partial decision formed in advance of argument or
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evidence, usually grounded on some general principle, and always held subject to revision upon fuller
information. A prejudice or prepossession is grounded often on feeling, fancy, associations, etc. A prejudice
against foreigners is very common in retired communities. There is always a presumption in favor of what
exists, so that the burden of proof is upon one who advocates a change. A prepossession is always favorable, a
prejudice always unfavorable, unless the contrary is expressly stated. Compare INJURY.
Antonyms:
certainty, conviction, evidence, reason, conclusion, demonstration, proof, reasoning.
Prepositions:
Against; rarely, in favor of, in one's favor.
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PRETENSE.
Synonyms:
affectation, disguise, pretext, simulation, air, dissimulation, ruse, subterfuge, assumption, excuse, seeming,
trick, cloak, mask, semblance, wile. color, pretension, show,
A pretense, in the unfavorable, which is also the usual sense, is something advanced or displayed for the
purpose of concealing the reality. A person makes a pretense of something for the credit or advantage to be
gained by it; he makes what is allowed or approved a pretext for doing what would be opposed or condemned;
a tricky schoolboy makes a pretense of doing an errand which he does not do, or he makes the actual doing of
an errand a pretext for playing truant. A ruse is something (especially something slight or petty) employed to
blind or deceive so as to mask an ulterior design, and enable a person to gain some end that he would not be
allowed to approach directly. A pretension is a claim that is or may be contested; the word is now commonly
used in an unfavorable sense. Compare ARTIFICE; HYPOCRISY.
Antonyms:
actuality, frankness, ingenuousness, reality, sincerity, candor, guilelessness, openness, simplicity, truth. fact,
honesty,
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PREVENT.
Synonyms:
anticipate, forestall, obviate, preclude.
The original sense of prevent, to come before, act in advance of, which is now practically obsolete, was still in
good use when the authorized version of the Bible was made, as appears in such passages as, "When Peter
was come into the house, Jesus prevented him" (i. e., addressed him first), Matt. xvii, 25; "Thou preventest
him with the blessings of goodness" (i. e., by sending the blessings before the desire is formulated or
expressed), Ps. xxi, 3. Anticipate is now the only single word usable in this sense; to forestall is to take or act
in advance in one's own behalf and to the prejudice of another or others, as in the phrase "to forestall the
market." But to anticipate is very frequently used in the favorable sense; as, his thoughtful kindness
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