An antonym is a word that is the opposite meaning of another. It comes from the Greek words “anti” for opposite and “onym” for name. Since

language is complex, people may at times, disagree on what words are

truly opposite in meaning to other words.

Categories of antonyms

There are three categories of antonyms:

Graded antonyms• Graded antonyms deal with levels of the meaning of the words, like

if something is not “good”, is may still not be “bad.” There is a scale involved with some words, and besides good and bad there can be average, fair, excellent, terrible, poor, or satisfactory.

Examples

Complementary antonyms

• Complementary antonyms have a relationship where there is no middle ground. There are only two possibilities, either one or the other.

Relational antonyms• Relational antonyms are sometimes considered a subcategory of

complementary antonyms. With these pairs, for there to be a relationship, both must exist.

Adding a prefix

• Sometimes, an antonym can be easily made by adding a prefix. Examples of antonyms that were made by adding the prefix “un” are:

Likely and unlikely

Lastly, adding the prefix “in” can make the following pairs:Tolerant and intolerant

Other examples

Antonym dictionaries

• If you want to find the perfect antonym, a thesaurus or antonym dictionary can be very helpful. These reference sources will give definitions and parts of speech, has lists of anonyms, synonyms, and sometimes will even show similar sounding words, homophones, rhymes, and will show examples from literature.

ANTONYM GAMES