English Synonyms and Antonyms

Idle in all uses rests upon its root meaning, as derived from the Anglo-Saxon idel, which signifies vain,
empty, useless. Idle thus denotes not primarily the absence of action, but vain action--the absence of useful,
effective action; the idle schoolboy may be very actively whittling his desk or tormenting his neighbors.
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
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Doing nothing whatever is the secondary meaning of idle. One may be temporarily idle of necessity; if he is
habitually idle, it is his own fault. Lazy signifies indisposed to exertion, averse to labor; idleness is in fact;
laziness is in disposition or inclination. A lazy person may chance to be employed in useful work, but he acts
without energy or impetus. We speak figuratively of a lazy stream. The inert person seems like dead matter
(characterized by inertia), powerless to move; the sluggish moves heavily and toilsomely; the most active
person may sometimes find the bodily or mental powers sluggish. Slothful belongs in the moral realm,
denoting a self-indulgent aversion to exertion. "The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to
bring it again to his mouth," Prov. xxvi, 15. Indolent is a milder term for the same quality; the slothful man
hates action; the indolent man loves inaction. Compare VAIN.
Antonyms:
active, busy, diligent, employed, industrious, occupied, working.
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IGNORANT.
Synonyms:
ill-informed, unenlightened, unlearned, untaught, illiterate, uninformed, unlettered, untutored. uneducated,
uninstructed, unskilled,
Ignorant signifies destitute of education or knowledge, or lacking knowledge or information; it is thus a
relative term. The most learned man is still ignorant of many things; persons are spoken of as ignorant who
have not the knowledge that has become generally diffused in the world; the ignorant savage may be well
instructed in matters of the field and the chase, and is thus more properly untutored than ignorant. Illiterate is
without letters and the knowledge that comes through reading. Unlettered is similar in meaning to illiterate,
but less absolute; the unlettered man may have acquired the art of reading and writing and some elementary
knowledge; the uneducated man has never taken any systematic course of mental training. Ignorance is
relative; illiteracy is absolute; we have statistics of illiteracy; no statistics of ignorance are possible.
Antonyms:
educated, learned, sage, skilled, trained, well-informed, wise. instructed,
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IMAGINATION.
Synonyms:
fancy, fantasy, phantasy.
The old psychology treated of the Reproductive Imagination, which simply reproduces the images that the
mind has in any way acquired, and the Productive Imagination which modifies and combines mental images
so as to produce what is virtually new. To this Reproductive Imagination President Noah Porter and others
have given the name of phantasy or fantasy (many psychologists preferring the former spelling). Phantasy or
fantasy, so understood, presents numerous and varied images, often combining them into new forms with
exceeding vividness, yet without any true constructive power, but with the mind adrift, blindly and passively
following the laws of association, and with reason and will in torpor; the mental images being perhaps as
varied and as vivid, but also as purposeless and unsystematized as the visual images in a kaleidoscope; such
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