synonymy

English

Etymology

From French synonymie and its etymon Late Latin synōnymia, from Ancient Greek συνωνυμία (sunōnumía), from συνώνυμος (sunṓnumos, “of like name”) + -ία (-ía, abstract noun suffix). By surface analysis, synonym +‎ -y or syn- +‎ -onymy. Doublet of synonymia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɪˈnɒnəmi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

synonymy (countable and uncountable, plural synonymies)

1. (semantics) A certain degree of similarity between the meaning(s) of several (synonymous) words or phrases. (See Usage notes below.)

   Synonyms: homosemy (2000× less common), synonymity (10× less common), synonymousness (600× less common')

   Antonyms: nonsynonymy; antonymy

   Coordinate terms: antiphrasis; cohyponymy, coordination, coordinateness; parasynonymy, plesionymy; comeronymy; metonymy; synechdoche

2. A list or collection of synonyms, often compared and contrasted.
3. (rhetoric) The use of synonyms to clarify or explain one's meaning.

   Synonyms: interpretatio, interpreter (obsolete), synonymia

4. The study of synonyms.

   Synonym: synonymics

5. A system of synonyms. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
6. (taxonomy) The state of not being the name to be used, of being a synonym.

   sink into synonymy

   In 1924 this name was reduced to synonymy.

7. (taxonomy, by extension) A group or list of synonyms.

   The synonymy of Tachina is extensive.

   Descriptions are followed by a synonymy of the names that have been applied in the literature .

Usage notes

Defining the main sense of synonymy (#1) precisely is difficult. Lexical synonymy can be considered polysemous; since synonymy is relative, linguists distinguish between absolute synonymy and partial synonymy, and many consider synonyms on a spectrum which has no agreed-upon scale. Partial synonymy itself encompasses multiple types of synonymy, with different names and definitions depending on the analytical framework, such as cognitive synonymy, descriptive synonymy, full synonymy, complete synonymy and total synonymy. For more information, see the Further reading section.

Related terms

• synonym
• synonymia

Translations

quality of being synonymous

• Bulgarian: еднозначност f (ednoznačnost)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: synonymie f, synonymita f
• Finnish: synonymia (fi)
• French: synonymie (fr) f
• Georgian: სინონიმია (sinonimia)
• German: Synonymie (de) f
• Hungarian: szinonímia (hu), rokonértelműség (hu)
• Irish: comhchiallachas m
• Italian: sinonimia (it) f
• Latvian: sinonīmija f
• Polish: bliskoznaczność f, synonimia (pl) f, synonimiczność (pl) f
• Portuguese: sinonímia (pt) f
• Romanian: sinonimie (ro) f
• Russian: синони́мия (ru) f (sinonímija)
• Spanish: sinonimia f
• Swedish: synonymi (sv) c
• Volapük: leigasinif, otsinif
• Walloon: sinonimeye (wa) f

list or collection of synonyms

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: synonyymiluettelo
• French: please add this translation if you can

study of synonyms

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: synonymiikka (fi)
• French: please add this translation if you can
• Volapük: leigasinifav

system of synonyms

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: synonyymijärjestelmä
• French: please add this translation if you can

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: synonymie (fr)

Further reading

• On Cognitive Synonymy, bachelor’s diploma thesis by Petra Šklíbová
• Different Kinds of Synonymy in Language, seminar paper by Klaus-Bernhard Vomend