Synonyms and antonyms · Year 2

Synonyms are words with the same or nearly the same meaning: big and large. Antonyms are words with opposite meanings: hot and cold. Knowing them helps you understand new words, avoid repeating yourself and choose the best word for what you mean.

Key facts

  • Synonyms mean nearly the same: happy, glad, cheerful; begin and start.
  • Synonyms are rarely exactly the same: enormous is bigger than big, and furious is angrier than cross. Pick the one that fits best.
  • Antonyms are opposites: early/late, empty/full, win/lose.
  • One word can have different antonyms: old is the opposite of new (a car) and of young (a person).
  • Prefixes can make antonyms: happy → unhappy, agree → disagree, possible → impossible, correct → incorrect, legal → illegal, regular → irregular.

Worked examples

Example 1

Which word means the same as quick: slow, fast or quiet?

Answer: fast

Example 2

Write the opposite of honest using a prefix.

Answer: dishonest

Example 3

Are wet and dry synonyms or antonyms?

Answer: Antonyms

Other years