English Synonyms and Antonyms

 feud is enmity between families, clans, or parties, with acts of hostility mutually retaliated and avenged;
feud is rarely used of individuals, never of nations. While all the other words of the group may refer to that
which is transient, a feud is long-enduring, and often hereditary. Dissension is used of a number of persons, of
a party or other organization. Bitterness is in feeling only; enmity and hostility involve will and purpose to
oppose or injure. A quarrel is in word or act, or both, and is commonly slight and transient, as we speak of
childish quarrels; contention and strife may be in word or deed; contest ordinarily involves some form of
action. Contest is often used in a good sense, contention and strife very rarely so. Controversy is commonly in
words; strife extends from verbal controversy to the contests of armies. Affray, brawl, and broil, like quarrel,
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
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are words of inferior dignity. An affray or broil may arise at a street corner; the affray always involves
physical force; the brawl or broil may be confined to violent language.
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FICTION.
Synonyms:
allegory, fabrication, invention, myth, romance, apologue, falsehood, legend, novel, story. fable, figment,
Fiction is now chiefly used of a prose work in narrative form in which the characters are partly or wholly
imaginary, and which is designed to portray human life, with or without a practical lesson; a romance portrays
what is picturesque or striking, as a mere fiction may not do; novel is a general name for any continuous
fictitious narrative, especially a love-story; fiction and novel are used with little difference of meaning, except
that novel characterizes a work in which the emotional element is especially prominent. The moral of the fable
is expressed formally; the lesson of the fiction, if any, is inwrought. A fiction is studied; a myth grows up
without intent. A legend may be true, but can not be historically verified; a myth has been received as true at
some time, but is now known to be false. A fabrication is designed to deceive; it is a less odious word than
falsehood, but is really stronger, as a falsehood may be a sudden unpremeditated statement, while a
fabrication is a series of statements carefully studied and fitted together in order to deceive; the falsehood is
all false; the fabrication may mingle the true with the false. A figment is something imaginary which the one
who utters it may or may not believe to be true; we say, "That statement is a figment of his imagination." The
story may be either true or false, and covers the various senses of all the words in the group. Apologue, a word
simply transferred from Greek into English, is the same as fable. Compare ALLEGORY.
Antonyms:
certainty, fact, history, literalness, reality, truth, verity.
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FIERCE.
Synonyms:
ferocious, furious, raging, uncultivated, violent, fiery, impetuous, savage, untrained, wild.
Fierce signifies having a furious and cruel nature, or being in a furious and cruel mood, more commonly the
latter. It applies to that which is now intensely excited, or liable to intense and sudden excitement. Ferocious
refers to a state or disposition; that which is fierce flashes or blazes; that which is ferocious steadily burns; we
speak of a ferocious animal, a fierce passion. A fiery spirit with a good disposition is quickly excitable in a
good cause, but may not be fierce or ferocious. Savage signifies untrained, uncultivated. Ferocious always
denotes a tendency to violence; it is more distinctly bloodthirsty than the other words; a person may be
deeply, intensely cruel, and not at all ferocious; a ferocious countenance expresses habitual ferocity; a fierce
countenance may express habitual fierceness, or only the sudden anger of the moment. That which is wild is
simply unrestrained; the word may imply no anger or harshness; as, wild delight, wild alarm.
Antonyms:
affectionate, gentle, kind, patient, submissive, tame, docile, harmless, mild, peaceful, sweet, tender.
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
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FINANCIAL.
Synonyms:
fiscal, monetary, pecuniary.
These words all relate to money, receipts, or expenditures. Monetary relates to actual money, coin, currency;
as, the monetary system; a monetary transaction is one in which money is transferred. Pecuniary refers to that
in which money is involved, but less directly; we speak of one's pecuniary affairs or interests, with no special
reference to the handling of cash. Financial applies especially to governmental revenues or expenditures, or to
private transactions of considerable moment; we speak of a pecuniary reward, a financial enterprise; we give
a needy person pecuniary (not financial) assistance. It is common to speak of the fiscal rather than the