English Synonyms and Antonyms

strange? 3. What is the primary meaning of peculiar? With what implication is it now commonly used? 4.
What is the meaning of eccentric? How does it differ in use from odd or queer? 5. How does erratic compare
with eccentric? 6. What is the primary meaning of queer? its common meaning? 7. What is the significance of
quaint? grotesque?
EXAMPLES.
A ----, shy man was this pastor--a sort of living mummy, dried up and bleached by Icelandic snows.
In setting a hen, says Grose, the good women hold it an indispensable rule to put an ---- number of eggs.
Only a man of undoubted genius can afford to be ----.
The ---- architecture of these medieval towns has a strange fascination.
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QUICKEN (page 297).
QUESTIONS.
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
437

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1. What is it to accelerate? to despatch? 2. What does the verb speed signify? hasten? hurry? What does hurry
suggest in addition to the meaning of hasten?
EXAMPLES.
The motion of a falling body is continually ----ed.
The muster-place is Lanrick mead! ---- forth the signal! Norman, ----!
The pulsations of the heart are ----ed by exertion.
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QUOTE (page 298).
QUESTIONS.
1. How does cite differ from quote? 2. What is it to paraphrase? to plagiarize?
EXAMPLES.
A great man ---- bravely, and will not draw on his invention when his memory serves him with a word as
good.
The Devil can ---- Scripture for his purpose.
To appropriate others' thoughts or words mechanically and without credit is to ----.
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RACY (page 299).
QUESTIONS.
1. To what does racy in the first instance refer? pungent? 2. How does piquant differ from pungent? 3. How
are these words and the word spicy used in reference to literary products?
EXAMPLES.
Pure mother English, ---- and fresh with idiomatic graces.
The atmosphere was strangely impregnated with the ---- odor of burning peat.
The spruce, the cedar, and the juniper, with their balsamic breath, filled the air with a ---- fragrance.
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RADICAL (page 299).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is the primary meaning of radical? 2. What contrasted senses are derived from this primary meaning?
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
438

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EXAMPLES.
Timidity is a ---- defect in a reformer.
Social and political leaders look to vested interests, and hence are inclined to regard all ---- measures as ----.
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RARE (page 300).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is the meaning of unique? Can any one of a number of things of the same kind be unique? 2. What is
the primary meaning of rare? What added sense is often blended with this primary meaning? 3. Is
extraordinary favorable or unfavorable in meaning?
EXAMPLES.
Nothing is so ---- as time.
That which gives to the Jews their ---- position among the nations is what we are accustomed to regard as their
sacred history.
And what is so ---- as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days.
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REACH (page 300).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is it to reach in the sense here considered? 2. What is it to arrive? 3. What does attain add to the
meaning of arrive? What does gain add?
EXAMPLES.
And grasping down the boughs I ----ed the shore.
He gathered the ripe nuts in the fall, And berries that grew by fence and wall So high she could not ---- them
at all.
The heights by great men ----ed and kept Were not ----ed by sudden flight, But they, while their companions
slept, Were toiling upward in the night.
It is only in this way that we can hope to ---- at truth.
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REAL (page 301).
QUESTIONS.
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
439

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1. From what is real derived? What does it mean? 2. From what is the real distinguished? 3. To what is actual
opposed? 4. What shades of difference may be pointed out between the four words actual, real, developed,
and positive?
EXAMPLES.
In ---- life we do not die when all that makes life bright dies to us.
If there was any trouble, ---- or impending, affecting those she had served, her place was with them.
This was regarded as proof ---- of conspiracy.
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REASON, v. (page 302).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is it to reason about a matter? 2. From what is argue derived, and what does it mean? 3. What is it to