English Synonyms and Antonyms

Education (L. educere, to lead or draw out) is the systematic development and cultivation of the mind and
other natural powers. "Education is the harmonious development of all our faculties. It begins in the nursery,
and goes on at school, but does not end there. It continues through life, whether we will or not.... 'Every
person,' says Gibbon, 'has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one more important, which
he gives himself.'" JOHN LUBBOCK The Use of Life ch. vii, p. 111. [MACM. '94.] Instruction, the
impartation of knowledge by others (L. instruere, to build in or into) is but a part of education, often the
smallest part. Teaching is the more familiar and less formal word for instruction. Training refers not merely to
the impartation of knowledge, but to the exercising of one in actions with the design to form habits. Discipline
is systematic and rigorous training, with the idea of subjection to authority and perhaps of punishment.
Tuition is the technical term for teaching as the business of an instructor or as in the routine of a school;
tuition is narrower than teaching, not, like the latter word, including training. Study is emphatically what one
does for himself. We speak of the teaching, training, or discipline, but not of the education or tuition of a dog
or a horse. Breeding and nurture include teaching and training, especially as directed by and dependent upon
home life and personal association; breeding having reference largely to manners with such qualities as are
deemed distinctively characteristic of high birth; nurture (literally nourishing) having more direct reference to
moral qualities, not overlooking the physical and mental. Knowledge and learning tell nothing of mental
development apart from the capacity to acquire and remember, and nothing whatever of that moral
development which is included in education in its fullest and noblest sense; learning, too, may be acquired by
one's unaided industry, but any full education must be the result in great part of instruction, training, and
personal association. Study is emphatically what one does for himself, and in which instruction and tuition can
only point the way, encourage the student to advance, and remove obstacles; vigorous, persevering study is
one of the best elements of training. Study is also used in the sense of the thing studied, a subject to be
mastered by study, a studious pursuit. Compare KNOWLEDGE; REFINEMENT; WISDOM.
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
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Antonyms:
ignorance, illiteracy.
Compare synonyms for IGNORANT.
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EFFRONTERY.
Synonyms:
assurance, boldness, hardihood, insolence, audacity, brass, impudence, shamelessness.
Audacity, in the sense here considered, is a reckless defiance of law, decency, public opinion, or personal
rights, claims, or views, approaching the meaning of impudence or shamelessness, but always carrying the
thought of the personal risk that one disregards in such defiance; the merely impudent or shameless person
may take no thought of consequences; the audacious person recognizes and recklessly braves them.
Hardihood defies and disregards the rational judgment of men. Effrontery (L. effrons, barefaced, shameless)
adds to audacity and hardihood the special element of defiance of considerations of propriety, duty, and
respect for others, yet not to the extent implied in impudence or shamelessness. Impudence disregards what is
due to superiors; shamelessness defies decency. Boldness is forward-stepping courage, spoken of with
reference to the presence and observation of others; boldness, in the good sense, is courage viewed from the
outside; but the word is frequently used in an unfavorable sense to indicate a lack of proper sensitiveness and
modesty. Compare ASSURANCE; BRAVE.
Antonyms:
bashfulness, diffidence, sensitiveness, shyness, coyness, modesty, shrinking, timidity.
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EGOTISM.
Synonyms:
conceit, self-assertion, self-confidence, self-esteem, egoism, self-conceit, self-consciousness, vanity.