synonymous

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin synōnymus, from Ancient Greek συνώνυμος (sunṓnumos). By surface analysis, synonym +‎ -ous.[1][2]

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /sɪˈnɒnɪməs/
  • (US) IPA(key): /sɪˈnɑnɪməs/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Adjective

synonymous (not comparable)

  1. (particularly in semantics, construed with with) Having a similar (sometimes identical) meaning. (See Usage notes below)
    • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Chapter XXVII. Lady Marchmont to Sir Jasper Meredith.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 243:
      He was not far wrong, for nothing strikes me more forcibly than the universal tendency to grumble: conversation and complaint are synonymous terms.
    • 2019 July 17, Talia Levin, “When Non-Jews Wield Anti-Semitism as Political Shield”, in GQ‎[1]:
      Jews and Israel are not synonymous; nor is support for Palestine synonymous with anti-Semitism; nor is questioning the orthodoxy of the Republican party, which the majority of us do with relish, an insult to Jewry.
    • 2023 January, Meg Roser, Charlotte Chalker and Tim Squirrell, “Spitting out the blackpill: Evaluating how incels present themselves in their own words on the incel Wiki”, in Institute for Strategic Dialogue‎[2], page 5:
      For much of the time that incels have self-described as such, their collective worldview has been synonymous with the ‘blackpill’.
  2. (construed with with) Of, or being a synonym.
  3. (genetics, of a SNP) Such that both its forms yield the same sequenced protein.

Usage notes

The main sense of "synonymous" (#1) can be considered polysemous. Since synonymy is relative, linguists distinguish between absolute synonymy and partial synonymy, and many consider synonymy as a scale, meaning that some synonyms are more synonymous than others. For more information, see the Usage notes section of synonymy.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

  • Wiktionary:Semantic relations

References

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “synonymous (adj.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary: “from Medieval Latin synonymus, from Greek synonymos”
  2. ^ James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Synonymous (sinǫ·niməs), a.”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume IX, Part 2 (Su–Th), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 385, column 1: “f. med.L. synōnymus, ad. Gr. συνώνυμος: see Synonym and -ous.”
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