English Synonyms and Antonyms — Taciturn to Time

Synonyms: close, mute, reticent, speechless, dumb, reserved, silent, uncommunicative.

_Dumb_, _mute_, _silent_ and _speechless_ refer to fact or state;

_taciturn_ refers to habit and disposition.

The talkative person may be stricken _dumb_ with surprise or terror; the obstinate may remain _mute_; one may be _silent_ through preoccupation of mind or of set purpose; but the _taciturn_ person is averse to the utterance of thought or feeling and to communication with others, either from natural disposition or for the occasion.

One who is _silent_ does not speak at all; one who is _taciturn_ speaks when compelled, but in a grudging way that repels further approach.

_Reserved_ suggests more of method and intention than _taciturn_, applying often to some special time or topic;

one who is communicative regarding all else may be _reserved_ about his business.

_Reserved_ is thus closely equivalent to _uncommunicative_, but is a somewhat stronger word, often suggesting pride or haughtiness, as when we say one is _reserved_ toward inferiors.

Compare PRIDE.

Antonyms: communicative, free, garrulous, loquacious, talkative, unreserved.

* * * * * TASTEFUL.

Synonyms: artistic, delicate, esthetic, fastidious, nice, chaste, delicious, esthetical, fine, tasty.

dainty, elegant, exquisite, _Elegant_ (L. _elegans_, select) refers to that assemblage of qualities which makes anything choice to persons of culture and refinement; it refers to the lighter, finer elements of beauty in form or motion, especially denoting that which exhibits faultless taste and perfection of finish.

That which is _elegant_ is made so not merely by nature, but by art and culture; a woodland dell may be beautiful or picturesque, but would not ordinarily be termed _elegant_.

_Tasteful_ refers to that in which the element of taste is more prominent, standing, as it were, more by itself, while in _elegant_ it is blended as part of the whole.

_Tasty_ is an inferior word, used colloquially in a similar sense.

_Chaste_ (primarily _pure_), denotes in literature and art that which is true to the higher and finer feelings and free from all excess or meretricious ornament.

_Dainty_ and _delicate_ refer to the lighter and finer elements of taste and beauty, _dainty_ tending in personal use to an excessive scrupulousness which is more fully expressed by _fastidious_.

_Nice_ and _delicate_ both refer to exact adaptation to some standard; the bar of a balance can be said to be nicely or delicately poised; as regards matters of taste and beauty, _delicate_ is a higher and more discriminating word than _nice_, and is always used in a favorable sense; a _delicate_ distinction is one worth observing; a _nice_ distinction may be so, or may be overstrained and unduly subtle;

_fine_ in such use, is closely similar to _delicate_ and _nice_, but (tho capable of an unfavorable sense) has commonly a suggestion of positive excellence or admirableness; a _fine_ touch does something;

_fine_ perceptions are to some purpose; _delicate_ is capable of the single unfavorable sense of frail or fragile; as, a _delicate_ constitution.

_Esthetic_ or _esthetical_ refers to beauty or the appreciation of the beautiful, especially from the philosophic point of view.

_Exquisite_ denotes the utmost perfection of the _elegant_ in minute details; we speak of an _elegant_ garment, an _exquisite_ lace.

_Exquisite_ is also applied to intense keenness of any feeling; as, _exquisite_ delight; _exquisite_ pain.

See BEAUTIFUL; DELICIOUS; FINE.

Antonyms: clumsy, displeasing, grotesque, inartistic, rough, coarse, distasteful, harsh, inharmonious, rude, deformed, fulsome, hideous, meretricious, rugged, disgusting, gaudy, horrid, offensive, tawdry.

* * * * * TEACH.

Synonyms: discipline, give instruction, inform, nurture, drill, give lessons, initiate, school, educate, inculcate, instill, train, enlighten, indoctrinate, instruct, tutor.

To _teach_ is simply to communicate knowledge; to _instruct_ (originally, to build in or into, put in order) is to impart knowledge with special method and completeness; _instruct_ has also an authoritative sense nearly equivalent to command.

To _educate_ is to draw out or develop harmoniously the mental powers, and, in the fullest sense, the moral powers as well.

To _train_ is to direct to a certain result powers already existing.

_Train_ is used in preference to _educate_ when the reference is to the inferior animals or to the physical powers of man; as, to _train_ a horse; to _train_ the hand or eye.

To _discipline_ is to bring into habitual and complete subjection to authority; _discipline_ is a severe word, and is often used as a euphemism for _punish_; to be thoroughly effective in war, soldiers must be _disciplined_ as well as _trained_.

To _nurture_ is to furnish the care and sustenance necessary for physical, mental, and moral growth;

_nurture_ is a more tender and homelike word than _educate_.

Compare EDUCATION.

* * * * * TEMERITY.

Synonyms: audacity, heedlessness, presumption, foolhardiness, over-confidence, rashness, hardihood, precipitancy, recklessness, hastiness, precipitation, venturesomeness.

_Rashness_ applies to the actual rushing into danger without counting the cost; _temerity_ denotes the needless exposure of oneself to peril which is or might be clearly seen to be such.

_Rashness_ is used chiefly of bodily acts, _temerity_ often of mental or social matters; there may be a noble _rashness_, but _temerity_ is always used in a bad sense.

We say it is amazing that one should have had the _temerity_ to make a statement which could be readily proved a falsehood, or to make an unworthy proposal to one sure to resent it; in such use _temerity_ is often closely allied to _hardihood_, _audacity_, or _presumption_.

_Venturesomeness_ dallies on the edge of danger and experiments with it;

_foolhardiness_ rushes in for want of sense, _heedlessness_ for want of attention, _rashness_ for want of reflection, _recklessness_ from disregard of consequences.

_Audacity_, in the sense here considered, denotes a dashing and somewhat reckless courage, in defiance of conventionalities, or of other men's opinions, or of what would be deemed probable consequences; as, the _audacity_ of a successful financier.

Compare EFFRONTERY.

Antonyms: care, circumspection, cowardice, hesitation, timidity, wariness.

caution, * * * * * TERM.

Synonyms: article, denomination, member, phrase, condition, expression, name, word.

_Term_ in its figurative uses always retains something of its literal sense of a boundary or limit.

The _articles_ of a contract or other instrument are simply the portions into which it is divided for convenience; the _terms_ are the essential statements on which its validity depends--as it were, the landmarks of its meaning or power; a _condition_ is a contingent _term_ which may become fixed upon the happening of some contemplated event.

In logic a _term_ is one of the essential members of a proposition, the boundary of statement in some one direction.

Thus, in general use _term_ is more restricted than _word_, _expression_, or _phrase_; a _term_ is a _word_ that limits meaning to a fixed point of statement or to a special class of subjects, as when we speak of the definition of _terms_, that is of the key-_words_ in any discussion; or we say, that is a legal or scientific _term_.

Compare BOUNDARY; DICTION.

* * * * * TERSE.

Synonyms: brief, concise, neat, short, compact, condensed, pithy, succinct.

compendious, laconic, sententious, Anything _short_ or _brief_ is of relatively small extent.

That which is _concise_ (L. _con-_, with, together, and _cædo_, cut) is trimmed down, and that which is _condensed_ (L. _con-_, with, together, and _densus_, thick) is, as it were, pressed together, so as to include as much as possible within a small space.

That which is _compendious_ (L. _com-_, together, and _pendo_, weigh) gathers the substance of a matter into a few words, weighty and effective.

The _succinct_ (L. _succinctus_, from _sub-_, under, and _cingo_, gird; girded from below) has an alert effectiveness as if girded for action.

The _summary_ is compacted to the utmost, often to the point of abruptness; as, we speak of a _summary_ statement or a _summary_ dismissal.

That which is _terse_ (L. _tersus_, from _tergo_, rub off) has an elegant and finished completeness within the smallest possible compass, as if rubbed or polished down to the utmost.

A _sententious_ style is one abounding in sentences that are singly striking or memorable, apart from the context; the word may be used invidiously of that which is pretentiously oracular.

A _pithy_ utterance gives the gist of a matter effectively, whether in rude or elegant style.

Antonyms: diffuse, lengthy, long, prolix, tedious, verbose, wordy.

* * * * * TESTIMONY.

Synonyms: affidavit, attestation, deposition, proof, affirmation, certification, evidence, witness.

_Testimony_, in legal as well as in common use, signifies the statements of witnesses.

_Deposition_ and _affidavit_ denote _testimony_ reduced to writing; the _deposition_ differs from the _affidavit_ in that the latter is voluntary and without cross-examination, while the former is made under interrogatories and subject to cross-examination.

_Evidence_ is a broader term, including the _testimony_ of witnesses and all facts of every kind that tend to prove a thing true; we have the _testimony_ of a traveler that a fugitive passed this way; his footprints in the sand are additional _evidence_ of the fact.

Compare DEMONSTRATION; OATH.

* * * * * THEREFORE.

Synonyms: accordingly, consequently, then, whence, because, hence, thence, wherefore.

_Therefore_, signifying for that (or this) reason, is the most precise and formal word for expressing the direct conclusion of a chain of reasoning; _then_ carries a similar but slighter sense of inference, which it gives incidentally rather than formally; as, "All men are mortal; Cæsar is a man; _therefore_ Cæsar is mortal;" or, "The contract is awarded; _then_ there is no more to be said."

_Consequently_ denotes a direct result, but more frequently of a practical than a theoretic kind; as, "Important matters demand my attention; _consequently_ I shall not sail to-day."

_Consequently_ is rarely used in the formal conclusions of logic or mathematics, but marks rather the freer and looser style of rhetorical argument.

_Accordingly_ denotes correspondence, which may or may not be consequence; it is often used in narration; as, "The soldiers were eager and confident; _accordingly_ they sprang forward at the word of command."

_Thence_ is a word of more sweeping inference than _therefore_, applying not merely to a single set of premises, but often to all that has gone before, including the reasonable inferences that have not been formally stated.

_Wherefore_ is the correlative of _therefore_, and _whence_ of _hence_ or _thence_, appending the inference or conclusion to the previous statement without a break.

Compare synonyms for BECAUSE.

* * * * * THRONG.

Synonyms: concourse, crowd, host, jam, mass, multitude, press.

A _crowd_ is a company of persons filling to excess the space they occupy and pressing inconveniently upon one another; the total number in a _crowd_ may be great or small.

_Throng_ is a word of vastness and dignity, always implying that the persons are numerous as well as pressed or pressing closely together; there may be a dense _crowd_ in a small room, but there can not be a _throng_.

_Host_ and _multitude_ both imply vast numbers, but a _multitude_ may be diffused over a great space so as to be nowhere a _crowd_; _host_ is a military term, and properly denotes an assembly too orderly for crowding.

_Concourse_ signifies a spontaneous gathering of many persons moved by a common impulse, and has a suggestion of stateliness not found in the word _crowd_, while suggesting less massing and pressure than is indicated by the word _throng_.

* * * * * TIME.

Synonyms: age, duration, epoch, period, sequence, term, date, eon, era, season, succession, while.

_Sequence_ and _succession_ apply to events viewed as following one another; _time_ and _duration_ denote something conceived of as enduring while events take place and acts are done.

According to the necessary conditions of human thought, events are contained in _time_ as objects are in space, _time_ existing before the event, measuring it as it passes, and still existing when the event is past.

_Duration_ and _succession_ are more general words than _time_; we can speak of infinite or eternal _duration_ or _succession_, but _time_ is commonly contrasted with eternity.

_Time_ is measured or measurable _duration_.

* * * * * TIP.

Synonyms: