Editing Synonym (section)

{{Short description|Words or phrases of the same meaning}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Library of Ashurbanipal synonym list tablet.jpg|thumb|Synonym list in [[cuneiform]] on a clay tablet, [[Neo-Assyrian]] period<ref>{{British-Museum-db|K.4375|id=308401}}</ref>]]

A '''synonym''' is a [[word]], [[morpheme]], or [[phrase]] that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Synonym {{!}} Definition, Meaning, & Examples |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/synonym |website=Britannica |date=27 February 2024 |language=en}}</ref> For example, in the [[English language]], the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all synonyms of one another: they are ''synonymous''. The standard test for synonymy is substitution: one form can be replaced by another in a sentence without changing its meaning. 

Words may often be synonymous in only one particular [[word sense|sense]]: for example, ''long'' and ''extended'' in the [[context (language use)|context]] ''long time'' or ''extended time'' are synonymous, but ''long'' cannot be used in the phrase ''extended family''. 

Synonyms with exactly the same meaning share a [[seme (semantics)|seme]] or denotational [[sememe]], whereas those with inexactly similar meanings share a broader denotational or [[connotation]]al sememe and thus overlap within a [[semantic field]]. The former are sometimes called [[cognitive synonymy|cognitive synonyms]] and the latter, near-synonyms,<ref name="Stanojević_2009">{{Citation |last=Stanojević |first=Maja |year=2009 |title= Cognitive synonymy: a general overview |journal=Facta Universitatis, Linguistics and Literature Series |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=193–200 | url=http://facta.junis.ni.ac.rs/lal/lal200902/lal200902-05.pdf |postscript=.}}</ref> plesionyms<ref>DiMarco, Chrysanne, and Graeme Hirst. "Usage notes as the basis for a representation of near-synonymy for lexical choice." Proceedings of 9th annual conference of the University of Waterloo Centre for the New Oxford English Dictionary and Text Research. 1993.</ref> or poecilonyms.<ref>Grambs, David. The Endangered English Dictionary: Bodacious Words Your Dictionary Forgot. WW Norton & Company, 1997.</ref>