English Synonyms and Antonyms

agnostic denies either that we do know or that we can know whether there is a God.
Antonyms:
believer, Christian.
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SKETCH.
Synonyms:
brief, draft, outline, plan, design, drawing, picture, skeleton.
A sketch is a rough, suggestive presentation of anything, whether graphic or literary, commonly intended to be
preliminary to a more complete or extended treatment. An outline gives only the bounding or determining
lines of a figure or a scene; a sketch may give not only lines, but shading and color, but is hasty and
incomplete. The lines of a sketch are seldom so full and continuous as those of an outline, being, like the
shading or color, little more than indications or suggestions according to which a finished picture may be
made; the artist's first representation of a sunset, the hues of which change so rapidly, must of necessity be a
sketch. Draft and plan apply especially to mechanical drawing, of which outline, sketch, and drawing are also
used; a plan is strictly a view from above, as of a building or machine, giving the lines of a horizontal section,
originally at the level of the ground, now in a wider sense at any height; as, a plan of the cellar; a plan of the
attic. A mechanical drawing is always understood to be in full detail; a draft is an incomplete or unfinished
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
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drawing; a design is such a preliminary sketch as indicates the object to be accomplished or the result to be
attained, and is understood to be original. One may make a drawing of any well-known mechanism, or a
drawing from another man's design; but if he says, "The design is mine," he claims it as his own invention or
composition. In written composition an outline gives simply the main divisions, and in the case of a sermon is
often called a skeleton; a somewhat fuller suggestion of illustration, treatment, and style is given in a sketch. A
lawyer's brief is a succinct statement of the main facts involved in a case, and of the main heads of his
argument on points of law, with reference to authorities cited; the brief has none of the vagueness of a sketch,
being sufficiently exact and complete to form, on occasion, the basis for the decision of the court without oral
argument, when the case is said to be "submitted on brief." Compare DESIGN.
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SKILFUL.
Synonyms:
accomplished, apt, dexterous, happy, proficient, adept, clever, expert, ingenious, skilled, adroit, deft, handy,
practised, trained.
Skilful signifies possessing and using readily practical knowledge and ability, having alert and well-trained
faculties with reference to a given work. One is adept in that for which he has a natural gift improved by
practise; he is expert in that of which training, experience, and study have given him a thorough mastery; he is
dexterous in that which he can do effectively, with or without training, especially in work of the hand or
bodily activities. In the case of the noun, "an expert" denotes one who is "experienced" in the fullest sense, a
master of his branch of knowledge. A skilled workman is one who has thoroughly learned his trade, though he
may be naturally quite dull; a skilful workman has some natural brightness, ability, and power of adaptation,
in addition to his acquired knowledge and dexterity. Compare CLEVER; DEXTERITY; POWER.
Antonyms:
awkward, clumsy, inexpert, shiftless, unskilled, untrained. bungling, helpless, maladroit, unhandy, untaught,
Prepositions:
Skilful at or in a work, with a pen or tool of any kind.
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SLANDER.
Synonyms:
asperse, decry, disparage, revile, backbite, defame, libel, traduce, calumniate, depreciate, malign, vilify.
To slander a person is to utter a false and injurious report concerning him; to defame is specifically and
directly to attack one's reputation; to defame by spoken words is to slander, by written words, to libel. To