The relative antonyms They are those words that refer to opposing ideas or concepts, but that are not totally contrary, because there are other terms that express greater opposition. For example: good bad. In this case, “good” and “bad” are relative antonyms, because there is a term, “excellent”, which shows greater opposition to “bad”.
Antonyms are two words whose meanings are opposite and can be classified according to how their opposition is:
- absolute antonyms. They are words whose meanings are completely opposite. For example: symmetrical / asymmetrical.
- relative antonyms. They are words that are opposed, but their meanings are not completely contrary, because there is another term that shows a greater opposition. For example: similar / different.
In addition, according to the meaning, the antonyms are classified into:
- complementary antonyms. They are words that are opposed and mutually exclusive. For example: in out.
- reciprocal antonyms. They are words that require the existence of an opposite term. For example: go come.
- gradual antonyms. They are words that are opposed, but among them there are others that show graduation. For example: giant / tiny.
Characteristics of relative antonyms
- They belong to the same class of words. Relative antonyms can be two nouns, two adjectives, two verbs, two adverbs or two prepositions, but two terms that belong to different classes can never be opposed.
- They belong to the same semantic field.. Relative antonyms have meanings that are related to each other.
- They represent partially opposite ideas or concepts. The meanings of relative antonyms are not completely opposed, because there are other words that are absolutely contrary. For example: love / hate. In this case, there is another word, “love”, which shows greater opposition than “hate”.
Examples of relative antonyms
Word
Its relative antonym is…
agnostic believer pleasure boredom save spend high medium ambiguous precise before now white gray closed ajar clear confused continue abandon current unusual expensive economical uncovered half-covered slowly fast different similar tie lose scarce sufficient feasible utopian flexible intolerant cold lukewarm giant medium large small horrible pretty indispensable optional intense dim introverted sociable a lot little opaque poverty wealth noisy quiet
References
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