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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A word having the same or nearly the same meaning as another word or other words in a language.
  2. n. A word or an expression that serves as a figurative or symbolic substitute for another.
  3. n. Biology A scientific name of an organism or of a taxonomic group that has been superseded by another name at the same rank.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A word having the same signification as another; one of two or more words which have the same meaning; by extension, a word having nearly the same meaning as another; one of two or more words which in use cover to a considerable extent the same ground: the opposite of antonym.
  2. n. A word of one language which corresponds in meaning with a word in another language. See heteronym, 2, paronym, 2, and the quotation from Camden under synonymize.
  3. n. In natural history, a systematic name having the same, or approximately the same, meaning or application as another which has superseded it; a technical name which, by the rules of nomenclature, is not tenable. The question of the acceptance of a generic or a specific name depends upon the law of priority.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A word or phrase with a meaning that is the same as, or very similar to, another word or phrase.
  2. n. Any of the formal names for the taxon, including the valid name (i.e. the senior synonym).
  3. n. Any name for the taxon, usually a validly published, formally accepted one, but often also an unpublished name.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. One of two or more words (commonly words of the same language) which are equivalents of each other; one of two or more words which have very nearly the same signification, and therefore may often be used interchangeably. See under synonymous.
  2. n. An incorrect or incorrectly applied scientific name, as a new name applied to a species or genus already properly named, or a specific name preoccupied by that of another species of the same genus; -- so used in the system of nomenclature (which see) in which the correct scientific names of certain natural groups (usually genera, species, and subspecies) are regarded as determined by priority.
  3. n. One of two or more words corresponding in meaning but of different languages; a heteronym.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. two words that can be interchanged in a context are said to be synonymous relative to that context

Etymologies

  1. Middle English sinonyme, from Old French synonyme, from Latin synōnymum, from Greek sunōnumon, from neuter of sunōnumos, synonymous; see synonymous.

Examples

  • “In a previous column, cleared by copy editors and other arbiters of editorial taste after great hair-tearing and teeth-gnashing, we explored the penile and ornamental origins of the German-Yiddish schmuck, which has lost its taboo and is now a slang synonym for jerk, nerd, dork and creep.”

    Simon & Schuster: No Uncertain Terms

  • “Another synonym is "maison de tolérance" (house of tolerance) and the humor is not lost on me as I go about putting together this unexpected edition ...”

    Braise The Dog

  • “Around 1960, it became a slang synonym for any kind of failure, "we cratered.”

    The Washington Post: Oil spill: Even worse worst-case scenarios!

  • “Maybe we could mix it up with your tag synonym service too?”

    Recent Search Queries - Freshblog

  • “While the zoot suit eventually attained widespread popularity in the mainstream, it also became a pejorative synonym for "Mexican" on the West Coast as some Americans took umbrage at so many able-bodied young men who were not "helping to win the war.”

    From Zoot Suits to Border Walls

  • “While toilet and lavatory have discarded their original meanings, terms such as bog retained their original meanings (` a marshy place ') as well as being understood in Britain as a slang synonym for a toilet; it achieved an entry in Hotten's dictionary as early as 1864 as "a privy as distinguished from a water-closet.”

    Verbatim: VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XIX No 4

  • “Among the relatively new slang words: stella, “good-looking female, ” from stellar, “starlike, ” improbably influenced by the shouted name of Stanley Kowalski†™ s wife in Tennessee Williams†™ s “Streetcar Named Desire. ” A synonym is shorty or shawty, imported from vintage hip-hop for “girlfriend of any height. ” Such attractiveness is the opposite of the fast-fading butterface (“Great body, but her face .... ”), and a less-than-good-looking male or female is a blockamore, who “only looks good from a block or more. ””

    Old NY Times Writers Trying To Understand How “The Kids” Talk Is, Like, Totes Adorkable | Best Week Ever

  • “25 I replied that there was none in the house, which induced a sneer and an ejaculation sounding like “Himar,” (ass,) the slang synonym amongst fast Moslems for water-drinker.”

    Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah

  • “April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and, to kick things off, I’d like to take issue with the growing prevalence of the word “rape” as a slang synonym for “dominated”, “rocked’, or “killed”.”

    Fucking Friday: Rape (S.A.A.M.) | Mind on Fire

  • “J. 363 2001)) "states' rights" is used as a pejorative synonym for federalism by people who oppose it, not by people who believe in and advance federalism, subsidiarity and the like.”

    I just noticed that Dan Drezner called something "the Ann Althouse" idea.

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Comments

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  • NUTZFORdBUCKS Just because it is a synonym, does not mean it connotes the same meaning. Feb 12, 2012

  • jmjarmstrong JM wonders if there is another word for synonym. Jul 16, 2011

  • Prolagus Uh, I came here to write the same thing :) Nov 30, 2009

  • vanishedone A lowercase word that weirdly never existed on Wordie Classic; see Synonym. Nov 18, 2009

‘synonym’ has been looked up 4923 times, loved by 1 person, added to 11 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 15.