English Synonyms and Antonyms — Anticipate to Appear

apprehend, forecast, hope, expect, foretaste, look forward to.

To _anticipate_ may be either to take before in fact or to take before in thought; in the former sense it is allied with _prevent_; in the latter, with the synonyms above given.

This is coming to be the prevalent and favorite use.

We _expect_ that which we have good reason to believe will happen; as, a boy _expects_ to grow to manhood.

We _hope_ for that which we much desire and somewhat _expect_.

We _apprehend_ what we both _expect_ and fear.

_Anticipate_ is commonly used now, like _foretaste_, of that which we _expect_ both with confidence and pleasure.

In this use it is a stronger word than _hope_, where often "the wish is father to the thought."

I _hope_ for a visit from my friend, tho I have no word from him; I _expect_ it when he writes that he is coming; and as the time draws near I _anticipate_ it with pleasure.

Compare ABIDE; PREVENT.

Antonyms: despair of, doubt, dread, fear, recall, recollect, remember.

distrust, * * * * * ANTICIPATION.

Synonyms: antepast, expectation, foresight, hope, apprehension, foreboding, foretaste, presentiment, expectancy, forecast, forethought, prevision.

_Expectation_ may be either of good or evil; _presentiment_ almost always, _apprehension_ and _foreboding_ always, of evil; _anticipation_ and _antepast_, commonly of good.

Thus, we speak of the pleasures of _anticipation_.

A _foretaste_ may be of good or evil, and is more than imaginary; it is a part actually received in advance.

_Foresight_ and _forethought_ prevent future evil and secure future good by timely looking forward, and acting upon what is foreseen.

Compare ANTICIPATE.

Antonyms: astonishment, despair, dread, fear, surprise, consummation, doubt, enjoyment, realization, wonder.

* * * * * ANTIPATHY.

Synonyms: abhorrence, disgust, hatred, repugnance, antagonism, dislike, hostility, repulsion, aversion, distaste, opposition, uncongeniality.

detestation, _Antipathy_, _repugnance_, and _uncongeniality_ are instinctive; other forms of _dislike_ may be acquired or cherished for cause.

_Uncongeniality_ is negative, a want of touch or sympathy.

An _antipathy_ to a person or thing is an instinctive recoil from connection or association with that person or thing, and may be physical or mental, or both.

_Antagonism_ may result from the necessity of circumstances; _opposition_ may spring from conflicting views or interests; _abhorrence_ and _detestation_ may be the result of religious and moral training; _distaste_ and _disgust_ may be acquired; _aversion_ is a deep and permanent _dislike_.

A natural _antipathy_ may give rise to _opposition_ which may result in _hatred_ and _hostility_.

Compare ACRIMONY; ANGER; ENMITY; HATRED.

Antonyms: affinity, attraction, fellow-feeling, kindliness, sympathy.

agreement, congeniality, harmony, regard, Prepositions: Antipathy _to_ (less frequently _for_ or _against_) a person or thing;

antipathy _between_ or _betwixt_ two persons or things.

* * * * * ANTIQUE.

Synonyms: ancient, old-fashioned, quaint, superannuated.

antiquated, _Antique_ refers to an _ancient_, _antiquated_ to a discarded style.

_Antique_ is that which is either _ancient_ in fact or _ancient_ in style.

The reference is to the style rather than to the age.

We can speak of the _antique_ architecture of a church just built.

The difference between _antiquated_ and _antique_ is not in the age, for a Puritan style may be scorned as _antiquated_, while a Roman or Renaissance style may be prized as _antique_.

The _antiquated_ is not so much out of date as out of vogue.

_Old-fashioned_ may be used approvingly or contemptuously.

In the latter case it becomes a synonym for _antiquated_; in the good sense it approaches the meaning of _antique_, but indicates less duration.

We call a wide New England fireplace _old-fashioned_; a coin of the Cæsars, _antique_.

_Quaint_ combines the idea of age with a pleasing oddity; as, a _quaint_ gambrel-roofed house.

_Antiquated_ is sometimes used of persons in a sense akin to _superannuated_.

The _antiquated_ person is out of style and out of sympathy with the present generation by reason of age; the _superannuated_ person is incapacitated for present activities by reason of age.

Compare OLD.

Antonyms: fashionable, fresh, modern, modish, new, recent, stylish.

* * * * * ANXIETY.

Synonyms: anguish, disquiet, foreboding, perplexity, apprehension, disturbance, fretfulness, solicitude, care, dread, fretting, trouble, concern, fear, misgiving, worry.

_Anxiety_ is, according to its derivation, a choking _disquiet_, akin to _anguish_; _anxiety_ is mental; _anguish_ may be mental or physical;

_anguish_ is in regard to the known, _anxiety_ in regard to the unknown;

_anguish_ is because of what has happened, _anxiety_ because of what may happen.

_Anxiety_ refers to some future event, always suggesting hopeful possibility, and thus differing from _apprehension_, _fear_, _dread_, _foreboding_, _terror_, all of which may be quite despairing.

In matters within our reach, _anxiety_ always stirs the question whether something can not be done, and is thus a valuable spur to doing; in this respect it is allied to _care_.

_Foreboding_, _dread_, etc. , commonly incapacitate for all helpful thought or endeavor.

_Worry_ is a more petty, restless, and manifest _anxiety_; _anxiety_ may be quiet and silent; _worry_ is communicated to all around.

_Solicitude_ is a milder _anxiety_.

_Fretting_ or _fretfulness_ is a weak complaining without thought of accomplishing or changing anything, but merely as a relief to one's own _disquiet_.

_Perplexity_ often involves _anxiety_, but may be quite free from it.

A student may be _perplexed_ regarding a translation, yet, if he has time enough, not at all anxious regarding it.

Antonyms: apathy, calmness, confidence, light-heartedness, satisfaction, assurance, carelessness, ease, nonchalance, tranquillity.

Prepositions: Anxiety _for_ a friend's return; anxiety _about_, _in regard to_, or _concerning_ the future.

* * * * * APATHY.

Synonyms: calmness, indifference, quietness, stoicism, composure, insensibility, quietude, tranquillity, immobility, lethargy, sluggishness, unconcern, impassibility, phlegm, stillness, unfeelingness.

_Apathy_, according to its Greek derivation, is a simple absence of feeling or emotion.

There are persons to whom a certain degree of _apathy_ is natural, an innate _sluggishness_ of the emotional nature.

In the _apathy_ of despair, a person gives up, without resistance or sensibility, to what he has fiercely struggled to avoid.

While _apathy_ is want of feeling, _calmness_ is feeling without agitation.

_Calmness_ is the result of strength, courage, or trust; _apathy_ is the result of dulness or weakness.

_Composure_ is freedom from agitation or disturbance, resulting ordinarily from force of will, or from perfect confidence in one's own resources.

_Impassibility_ is a philosophical term applied to the Deity, as infinitely exalted above all stir of passion or emotion.

_Unfeelingness_, the Saxon word that should be the exact equivalent of _apathy_, really means more, a lack of the feeling one ought to have, a censurable hardness of heart.

_Indifference_ and _insensibility_ designate the absence of feeling toward certain persons or things; _apathy_, entire absence of feeling.

_Indifference_ is a want of interest; _insensibility_ is a want of feeling; _unconcern_ has reference to consequences.

We speak of _insensibility_ of heart, _immobility_ of countenance.

_Stoicism_ is an intentional suppression of feeling and deadening of sensibilities, while _apathy_ is involuntary.

Compare CALM; REST; STUPOR.

Antonyms: agitation, disturbance, feeling, sensibility, sympathy, alarm, eagerness, frenzy, sensitiveness, turbulence, anxiety, emotion, fury, storm, vehemence, care, excitement, passion, susceptibility, violence.

distress, Prepositions: The apathy _of_ monastic life; apathy _toward_ good.

* * * * * APIECE.

Synonyms: distributively, each, individually, separately, severally.

There is no discernible difference in sense between so much _apiece_ and so much _each_; the former is the more common and popular, the latter the more elegant expression.

_Distributively_ is generally used of numbers and abstract relations.

_Individually_ emphasizes the independence of the individuals; _separately_ and _severally_ still more emphatically hold them apart.

The signers of a note may become jointly and _severally_ responsible, that is, _each_ liable for the entire amount, as if he had signed it alone.

Witnesses are often brought _separately_ into court, in order that no one may be influenced by the testimony of another.

If a company of laborers demand a dollar _apiece_, that is a demand that _each_ shall receive that sum; if they _individually_ demand a dollar, _each_ individual makes the demand.

Antonyms: accumulatively, confusedly, indiscriminately, together, unitedly.

collectively, _en masse_, synthetically, * * * * * APOLOGY.

Synonyms: acknowledgment, defense, excuse, plea, confession, exculpation, justification, vindication.

All these words express one's answer to a charge of wrong or error that is or might be made.

_Apology_ has undergone a remarkable change from its old sense of a valiant _defense_--as in Justin Martyr's _Apologies_ for the Christian faith--to its present meaning of humble _confession_ and concession.

He who offers an _apology_ admits himself, at least technically and seemingly, in the wrong.

An _apology_ is for what one has done or left undone; an _excuse_ may be for what one proposes to do or leave undone as well; as, one sends beforehand his _excuse_ for not accepting an invitation; if he should fail either to be present or to excuse himself, an _apology_ would be in order.

An _excuse_ for a fault is an attempt at partial justification; as, one alleges haste as an _excuse_ for carelessness.

_Confession_ is a full _acknowledgment_ of wrong, generally of a grave wrong, with or without _apology_ or _excuse_.

_Plea_ ranges in sense from a prayer for favor or pardon to an attempt at full _vindication_.

_Defense_, _exculpation_, _justification_, and _vindication_ are more properly antonyms than synonyms of _apology_ in its modern sense, and should be so given, but for their connection with its historic usage.

Compare CONFESS; DEFENSE.

Antonyms: accusation, charge, condemnation, injury, offense, censure, complaint, imputation, insult, wrong.

Prepositions: An apology _to_ the guest _for_ the oversight would be fitting.

* * * * * APPARENT.

Synonyms: likely, presumable, probable, seeming.

The _apparent_ is that which appears; the word has two contrasted senses, either of that which is manifest, visible, certain, or of that which merely seems to be and may be very different from what is; as, the _apparent_ motion of the sun around the earth.

_Apparent_ kindness casts a doubt on the reality of the kindness; _apparent_ neglect implies that more care and pains may have been bestowed than we are aware of.

_Presumable_ implies that a thing may be reasonably supposed beforehand without any full knowledge of the facts.

_Probable_ implies that we know facts enough to make us moderately confident of it.

_Seeming_ expresses great doubt of the reality; _seeming_ innocence comes very near in meaning to _probable_ guilt.

_Apparent_ indicates less assurance than _probable_, and more than _seeming_.

A man's _probable_ intent we believe will prove to be his real intent; his _seeming_ intent we believe to be a sham; his _apparent_ intent may be the true one, tho we have not yet evidence on which to pronounce with certainty or even with confidence.

_Likely_ is a word with a wide range of usage, but always implying the belief that the thing is, or will be, true; it is often used with the infinitive, as the other words of this list can not be;

as, it is _likely_ to happen.

Compare EVIDENT.

Antonyms: doubtful, dubious, improbable, unimaginable, unlikely.

Prepositions: (When _apparent_ is used in the sense of evident): His guilt is apparent _in_ every act _to_ all observers.

* * * * * APPEAR.

Synonyms: have the appearance _or_ semblance, look, seem.

_Appear_ and _look_ refer to what manifests itself to the senses; to a semblance or probability presented directly to the mind.

_Seem_ applies to what is manifest to the mind on reflection.

It suddenly _appears_ to me that there is smoke in the distance; as I watch, it _looks_ like a fire; from my knowledge of the locality and observation of particulars, it _seems_ to me a farmhouse must be burning.

Antonyms: be, be certain, real, _or_ true, be the fact, exist.

Prepositions: Appear _at_ the front; _among_ the first; _on_ or _upon_ the surface;

_to_ the eye; _in_ evidence, _in_ print; _from_ reports; _near_ the harbor; _before_ the public; _in_ appropriate dress; _with_ the insignia of his rank; _above_ the clouds; _below_ the surface; _under_ the lee;

_over_ the sea; _through_ the mist; appear _for_, _in behalf of_, or _against_ one in court.

* * * * * APPENDAGE.