English Synonyms and Antonyms

 anarchy. Confusion, disorder, riot, and tumult are incidental and temporary outbreaks of lawlessness, but
may not be anarchy. Insubordination is individual disobedience. Sedition is the plotting, rebellion the
fighting, against the existing government, but always with the purpose of establishing some other government
in its place. When rebellion is successful it is called revolution; but there may be revolution without rebellion;
as, the English Revolution of 1688. A revolt is an uprising against existing authority without the
comprehensive views of change in the form or administration of government that are involved in revolution.
Anarchy, when more than temporary disorder, is a proposed disintegration of society, in which it is imagined
that social order might exist without government. Slaves make insurrection; soldiers or sailors break out in
mutiny; subject provinces rise in revolt. Compare SOCIALISM.
Antonyms:
authority, domination, government, obedience, sovereignty, command, dominion, law, order, submission,
control, empire, loyalty, rule, supremacy.
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REVOLVE.
Synonyms:
roll, rotate, turn.
Any round body rolls which continuously touches with successive portions of its surface successive portions
of another surface; a wagon-wheel rolls along the ground. To rotate is said of a body that has a circular
motion about its own center or axis; to revolve is said of a body that moves in a curving path, as a circle or an
ellipse, about a center outside of itself, so as to return periodically to the same relative position that it held at
some previous time. A revolving body may also either rotate or roll at the same time; the earth revolves
around the sun, and rotates on its own axis; in popular usage, the earth is often said to revolve about its own
axis, or to have a daily "revolution," but rotate and "rotation" are the more accurate terms. A cylinder over
which an endless belt is drawn is said to roll as regards the belt, tho it rotates as regards its own axis. Any
object that is in contact with or connected with a rolling body is often said to roll; as, the car rolls smoothly
along the track. Objects whose motion approximates or suggests a rotary motion along a supporting surface
are also said to roll; as, ocean waves roll in upon the shore, or the ship rolls in the trough of the sea. Turn is a
conversational and popular word often used vaguely for rotate or revolve, or for any motion about a fixed
point, especially for a motion less than a complete "rotation" or "revolution;" a man turns his head or turns on
his heel; the gate turns on its hinges.
Antonyms:
bind, chafe, grind, slide, slip, stand, stick.
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RIDDLE, n.
Synonyms:
conundrum, enigma, paradox, problem, puzzle.
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
255

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Conundrum, a word of unknown origin, signifies some question or statement in which some hidden and
fanciful resemblance is involved, the answer often depending upon a pun; an enigma is a dark saying; a
paradox is a true statement that at first appears absurd or contradictory; a problem is something thrown out for
solution; puzzle (from oppose) referred originally to the intricate arguments by which disputants opposed each
other in the old philosophic schools. The riddle is an ambiguous or paradoxical statement with a hidden
meaning to be guessed by the mental acuteness of the one to whom it is proposed; the riddle is not so petty as
the conundrum, and may require much acuteness for its answer; a problem may require simply study and
scholarship, as a problem in mathematics; a puzzle may be in something other than verbal statement, as a
dissected map or any perplexing mechanical contrivance. Both enigma and puzzle may be applied to any
matter difficult of answer or solution, enigma conveying an idea of greater dignity, puzzle applying to
something more commonplace and mechanical; there are many dark enigmas in human life and in the course
of providence; the location of a missing object is often a puzzle.
Antonyms:
answer, axiom, explanation, proposition, solution.
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RIGHT, n.
Synonyms:
claim, franchise, liberty, prerogative, exemption, immunity, license, privilege.
A