Antonyms

Antonyms are words of opposite meaning belonging to the same part of speech and designating contrasting concepts: "day — night," "good — evil," "joy — sorrow." Antonymy rests on the presence in the meanings of the words of a common feature by which they are opposed. Antonyms are the linguistic basis of many stylistic figures of contrast — antithesis, oxymoron, irony — and serve as a powerful means of intensifying opposites, sharpening thought, creating dramatic tension. In literature antonymy helps to delineate the conflict of characters, ideas, life principles, to lend an utterance an aphoristic, chiselled quality. Antonyms are widely represented in proverbs, sayings and the titles of works. The study of antonymy belongs to lexicology and stylistics, while the systematic ordering of antonyms is presented in dictionaries of antonyms.