English Synonyms and Antonyms — Venial to Virtue

excusable, pardonable, slight, trivial.

_Venial_ (L. _venia_, pardon) signifies capable of being pardoned, and, in common use, capable of being readily pardoned, easily overlooked.

Aside from its technical ecclesiastical use, _venial_ is always understood as marking some fault comparatively _slight_ or _trivial_.

A

_venial_ offense is one readily overlooked; a _pardonable_ offense requires more serious consideration, but on deliberation is found to be susceptible of pardon.

_Excusable_ is scarcely applied to offenses, but to matters open to doubt or criticism rather than direct censure; so used, it often falls little short of justifiable; as, I think, under those circumstances, his action was _excusable_.

Protestants do not recognize the distinction between _venial_ and mortal sins.

_Venial_ must not be confounded with the very different word VENAL.

Compare VENAL.

Antonyms: inexcusable, inexpiable, mortal, unpardonable, unjustifiable.

* * * * * VERACITY.

Synonyms: candor, honesty, reality, truthfulness, frankness, ingenuousness, truth, verity.

_Truth_ is primarily and _verity_ is always a quality of thought or speech, especially of speech, as in exact conformity to fact.

_Veracity_ is properly a quality of a person, the habit of speaking and the disposition to speak the _truth_; a habitual liar may on some occasions speak the _truth_, but that does not constitute him a man of _veracity_;

on the other hand, a person of undoubted _veracity_ may state (through ignorance or misinformation) what is not the _truth_.

_Truthfulness_ is a quality that may inhere either in a person or in his statements or beliefs.

_Candor_, _frankness_, _honesty_, and _ingenuousness_ are allied with _veracity_, and _verity_ with _truth_, while _truthfulness_ may accord with either.

_Truth_ in a secondary sense may be applied to intellectual action or moral character, in the former case becoming a close synonym of _veracity_; as, I know him to be a man of _truth_.

Antonyms: deceit, duplicity, falsehood, fiction, lie, deception, error, falseness, guile, mendacity, delusion, fabrication, falsity, imposture, untruth.

Compare synonyms for DECEPTION.

* * * * * VERBAL.

Synonyms: literal, oral, vocal.

_Oral_ (L. _os_, the mouth) signifies uttered through the mouth or (in common phrase) by word of mouth; _verbal_ (L. _verbum_, a word) signifies of, pertaining to, or connected with words, especially with words as distinguished from the ideas they convey; _vocal_ (L. _vox_, the voice) signifies of or pertaining to the voice, uttered or modulated by the voice, and especially uttered with or sounding with full, resonant voice; _literal_ (L. _litera_, a letter) signifies consisting of or expressed by letters, or according to the letter, in the broader sense of the exact meaning or requirement of the words used; what is called "the letter of the law" is its _literal_ meaning without going behind what is expressed by the letters on the page.

Thus _oral_ applies to that which is given by spoken words in distinction from that which is written or printed; as, _oral_ tradition; an _oral_ examination.

By this rule we should in strictness speak of an _oral_ contract or an _oral_ message, but _verbal_ contract and _verbal_ message, as indicating that which is by spoken rather than by written words, have become so fixed in the language that they can probably never be changed; this usage is also in line with other idioms of the language; as, "I give you my _word_," "a true man's _word_ is as good as his bond," "by _word_ of mouth," etc. A _verbal_ translation may be _oral_ or written, so that it is word for word; a _literal_ translation follows the construction and idiom of the original as well as the words; a _literal_ translation is more than one that is merely _verbal_; both _verbal_ and _literal_ are opposed to _free_.

In the same sense, of attending to words only, we speak of _verbal_ criticism, a _verbal_ change.

_Vocal_ has primary reference to the human voice; as, _vocal_ sounds, _vocal_ music; _vocal_ may be applied within certain limits to inarticulate sounds given forth by other animals than man; as, the woods were _vocal_ with the songs of birds; _oral_ is never so applied, but is limited to articulate utterance regarded as having a definite meaning; as, an _oral_ statement.

* * * * * VICTORY.

Synonyms: achievement, conquest, success, triumph.

advantage, mastery, supremacy, _Victory_ is the state resulting from the overcoming of an opponent or opponents in any contest, or from the overcoming of difficulties, obstacles, evils, etc. , considered as opponents or enemies.

In the latter sense any hard-won _achievement_, _advantage_, or _success_ may be termed a _victory_.

In _conquest_ and _mastery_ there is implied a permanence of state that is not implied in _victory_.

_Triumph_, originally denoting the public rejoicing in honor of a _victory_, has come to signify also a peculiarly exultant, complete, and glorious _victory_.

Compare CONQUER.

Antonyms: defeat, disappointment, failure, miscarriage, retreat, destruction, disaster, frustration, overthrow, rout.

* * * * * VIGILANT.

Synonyms: alert, cautious, on the lookout, wary, awake, circumspect, sleepless, watchful, careful, on the alert, wakeful, wide-awake.

_Vigilant_ implies more sustained activity and more intelligent volition than _alert_; one may be habitually _alert_ by reason of native quickness of perception and thought, or one may be momentarily _alert_ under some excitement or expectancy; one who is _vigilant_ is so with thoughtful purpose.

One is _vigilant_ against danger or harm; he may be _alert_ or _watchful_ for good as well as against evil; he is _wary_ in view of suspected stratagem, trickery, or treachery.

A person may be _wakeful_ because of some merely physical excitement or excitability, as through insomnia; yet he may be utterly careless and negligent in his wakefulness, the reverse of _watchful_; a person who is truly _watchful_ must keep himself _wakeful_ while on watch, in which case _wakeful_ has something of mental quality.

_Watchful_, from the Saxon, and _vigilant_, from the Latin, are almost exact equivalents; but _vigilant_ has somewhat more of sharp definiteness and somewhat more suggestion of volition; one may be habitually _watchful_; one is _vigilant_ of set purpose and for direct cause, as in the presence of an enemy.

Compare ALERT.

Antonyms: careless, heedless, inconsiderate, oblivious, drowsy, inattentive, neglectful, thoughtless, dull, incautious, negligent, unwary.

* * * * * VIRTUE.

Synonyms: chastity, honesty, probity, truth, duty, honor, purity, uprightness, excellence, integrity, rectitude, virtuousness, faithfulness, justice, righteousness, worth, goodness, morality, rightness, worthiness.

_Virtue_ (L. _virtus_, primarily manly strength or courage, from _vir_, a man, a hero) is, in its full sense, _goodness_ that is victorious through trial, perhaps through temptation and conflict.

_Goodness_, the being morally good, may be much less than _virtue_, as lacking the strength that comes from trial and conflict, or it may be very much more than _virtue_, as rising sublimely above the possibility of temptation and conflict--the infantile as contrasted with the divine _goodness_.

_Virtue_ is distinctively human; we do not predicate it of God.

_Morality_ is conformity to the moral law in action, whether in matters concerning ourselves or others, whether with or without right principle.

_Honesty_ and _probity_ are used especially of one's relations to his fellow men, _probity_ being to _honesty_ much what _virtue_ in some respects is to _goodness_; _probity_ is _honesty_ tried and proved, especially in those things that are beyond the reach of legal requirement; above the commercial sense, _honesty_ may be applied to the highest truthfulness of the soul to and with itself and its Maker.

_Integrity_, in the full sense, is moral wholeness without a flaw; when used, as it often is, of contracts and dealings, it has reference to inherent character and principle, and denotes much more than superficial or conventional _honesty_.

_Honor_ is a lofty _honesty_ that scorns fraud or wrong as base and unworthy of itself.

_Honor_ rises far above thought of the motto that "_honesty_ is the best policy."

_Purity_ is freedom from all admixture, especially of that which debases; it is _chastity_ both of heart and life, but of the life because from the heart.

_Duty_, the rendering of what is due to any person or in any relation, is, in this connection, the fulfilment of moral obligation.

_Rectitude_ and _righteousness_ denote conformity to the standard of right, whether in heart or act; _righteousness_ is used especially in the religious sense.

_Uprightness_ refers especially to conduct.

_Virtuousness_ is a quality of the soul or of action; in the latter sense it is the essence of virtuous action.

Compare INNOCENT; JUSTICE;

RELIGION.

Antonyms: evil, vice, viciousness, wickedness, wrong.

Compare synonyms for SIN.

* * * * * WANDER.

Synonyms: