English Synonyms and Antonyms

knowledge that has entered directly into one's own life; as, a child's experience that fire will burn. Learning is
much higher than information, being preeminently wide and systematic knowledge, the result of long,
assiduous study; erudition is recondite learning secured only by extraordinary industry, opportunity, and
ability. Compare ACQUAINTANCE; EDUCATION; SCIENCE; WISDOM.
Antonyms:
ignorance, inexperience, misconception, rudeness, illiteracy, misapprehension, misunderstanding,
unfamiliarity.
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Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
186

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LANGUAGE.
Synonyms:
barbarism, expression, patois, vernacular, dialect, idiom, speech, vocabulary. diction, mother tongue, tongue,
Language (F. langage < L. lingua, the tongue) signified originally expression of thought by spoken words, but
now in its widest sense it signifies expression of thought by any means; as, the language of the eyes, the
language of flowers. As regards the use of words, language in its broadest sense denotes all the uttered sounds
and their combinations into words and sentences that human beings employ for the communication of
thought, and, in a more limited sense, the words or combinations forming a means of communication among
the members of a single nation, people, or race. Speech involves always the power of articulate utterance; we
can speak of the language of animals, but not of their speech. A tongue is the speech or language of some one
people, country, or race. A dialect is a special mode of speaking a language peculiar to some locality or class,
not recognized as in accordance with the best usage; a barbarism is a perversion of a language by ignorant
foreigners, or some usage akin to that. Idiom refers to the construction of phrases and sentences, and the way
of forming or using words; it is the peculiar mold in which each language casts its thought. The great
difficulty of translation is to give the thought expressed in one language in the idiom of another. A dialect
may be used by the highest as well as the lowest within its range; a patois is distinctly illiterate, belonging to
the lower classes; those who speak a patois understand the cultured form of their own language, but speak
only the degraded form, as in the case of the Italian lazzaroni or the former negro slaves in the United States.
Vernacular, from the Latin, has the same general sense as the Saxon mother tongue, of one's native language,
or that of a people; as, the Scriptures were translated into the vernacular. Compare DICTION.
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LARGE.
Synonyms:
abundant, coarse, gigantic, long, ample, colossal, grand, massive, big, commodious, great, spacious, broad,
considerable, huge, vast, bulky, enormous, immense, wide. capacious, extensive,
Large denotes extension in more than one direction, and beyond the average of the class to which the object
belongs; we speak of a large surface or a large solid, but of a long line; a large field, a large room, a large
apple, etc. A large man is a man of more than ordinary size; a great man is a man of remarkable mental
power. Big is a more emphatic word than large, but of less dignity. We do not say that George Washington
was a big man.
Antonyms:
brief, limited, minute, scanty, small, diminutive, little, narrow, short, tiny, inconsiderable, mean, paltry,
slender, trifling, infinitesimal, microscopic, petty, slight, trivial. insignificant,
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LAW.
Synonyms:
canon, economy, legislation, principle, code, edict, mandate, regulation, command, enactment, order, rule,
commandment, formula, ordinance, statute. decree, jurisprudence, polity,
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
187

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