Lesson 7: Synonyms and Antonyms

A. Look at the questions and ask and answer.

• What is a synonym?
• What is an antonym?
• Do you know of any two words with the same or nearly the same meaning?
• What about ‘boring’ and ‘dull’?
• Do you know a word that means just the opposite of another word?
• What about ‘obey’ and ‘disobey’?

B. Read the text and do the following activities in pairs.

A synonym is a word that means the same or almost the same as another word. There may be more than one synonym for some of the words. Big and large, ‘begin’ and 'start' are synonyms.

An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word. 'Sorrow' and ‘happiness’, 'right' and 'wrong' are examples of antonyms.

C. Find the synonyms of the following words. Take help of the dictionary.

• idle
• text
• annoyed
• result
• goal
• trip
• valuable
• return

D. Find the synonyms of the words in the dictionary page in Lesson 3.

• fit
• fitted
• fitting

Make sentences with the synonyms.

E. Find the antonyms of the words in the dictionary page in Lesson 3.

• fit
• fitted

Make sentences with the antonyms.

F. From your dictionary, find the antonyms of the following words.

• profit
• complete
• strong
• hard
• different
• sweet
• fair
• minor

G. Match a word in A with a synonym in B.

A B

• noise harm
• boring sight
• handy irritate
• mend dull
• damage useful
• jealous row
• annoy envious
• view fix

H. Fill in the boxes with the synonyms of the word ‘happy’.

 Happy
 / \
 / \
 / \
 / \
 / \
 /__________________\
 

I. Match a word in A with its opposite in B

A B

• high accept
• lose light
• refuse low
• temporary subtract
• heavy permanent
• add gain
• minor outdoor
• indoor major

J. Fill in the boxes with the opposites/antonyms of the word ‘happy’.

 Happy
 / \
 / \
 / \
 / \
 / \
 /__________________\