English Synonyms and Antonyms

faculty? talent? 6. What are dexterity and skill? How are they related to talent? 7. What is efficacy? efficiency?
EXAMPLES.
Bismarck was the one great figure of all Europe, with more ---- for good or evil than any other human being
possessed at that time.
The soul, in its highest sense, is a vast ---- for God.
I reckon it is an oversight in a great body of metaphysicians that they have been afraid to ascribe our
apprehensions of ---- to intuition. In consequence of this neglect, some never get the idea of ----, but merely of
succession, within the bare limits of experience.
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PRAISE (page 280).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is praise? By how many is it given, and how is it expressed? 2. What is applause? by how many
given? and how expressed? 3. What is acclamation? How does it differ from applause? 4. How does
approbation differ from praise? 5. What does approval add to the meaning of praise? 6. How does
compliment compare with praise? 7. What is flattery?
EXAMPLES.
The ---- of listening senates to command, The threats of pain and ruin to despise, To scatter plenty o'er a
smiling land, And read their history in a nation's eyes.
---- no man e'er deserved who sought no more.
Gladly then he mixed Among those friendly powers, who him received With joy and ----s loud.
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PRAY (page 281).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is it to pray in the religious sense? 2. In what lighter and more familiar sense may pray be used? Is
this latter use now common?
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
429

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EXAMPLES.
Hesiod exhorted the husbandman to ---- for a harvest, but to do so with his hand upon the plow.
I kneel, and then ---- her blessing.
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PRECARIOUS (page 282).
QUESTIONS.
1. To what is the term uncertain applied? 2. What did precarious originally signify? How is it now used, and
how does it differ from uncertain?
EXAMPLES.
... Thou know'st, great son, The end of war's ----.
Life seems to be ---- in proportion to its value.
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PRECEDENT (page 282).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is a precedent? 2. How does case fall short of the meaning of precedent? 3. What is an obiter dictum?
How does it differ from a precedent?
EXAMPLES.
Where freedom broadens slowly down From ---- to ----.
Let us consider the reason of the ----, for nothing is law that is not reason.
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PREDESTINATION (page 282).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is predestination? 2. How does fate differ from predestination? 3. What does necessity signify in the
philosophical sense? 4. What is foreknowledge? Does it involve foreordination or predestination?
EXAMPLES.
For ---- has wove the thread of life with pain.
All high truth is the union of two contradictories. Thus ---- and free-will are opposites; and the truth does not
lie between these two, but in a higher reconciling truth which leaves both true.
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
430

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PREJUDICE (page 283).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is a presumption? On what is it founded? 2. On what are prejudice and prepossession based? How do
these two words differ from each other?
EXAMPLES.
When the judgment's weak, the ---- is strong.
The ---- is always in favor of what exists.
His fine features, manly form, and perfect manners awakened an instant ---- in his favor.
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PRETENSE (page 283).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is a pretense? How does it differ from a pretext? 2. What is a ruse?
EXAMPLES.
The claim of a stronger nation to protect a weaker has commonly been but a ---- for conquest.
It is not poverty so much as ---- that harasses a ruined man--the struggle between a proud mind and an empty
purse.
The independent English nobility conspired to make an insurrection, and to support the prince's ----s.
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PREVENT (page 284).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is the original meaning of prevent? 2. What word is now commonly used in that sense? 3. What is the
meaning of obviate? preclude? 4. How is prevent at present used?
EXAMPLES.
The contrary supposition is obviously ----.
When the Siberian Pacific Railway is finished, what is there to ---- Russia from annexing nearly the whole of
China?
There appears to be no way to ---- the difficulty.
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
431

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PREVIOUS (page 285).
QUESTIONS.
1. What does antecedent denote? 2. How does preceding differ from antecedent and previous? 3. How is