What are synonyms, their examples and what are they?

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. Today we will talk about synonyms. This is one of the linguistic tools in the Russian language, which allows us to make our speech (both oral and written) more expressive.

Synonyms are a vivid example of the diversity of the Russian language

Try to look up the meaning of this or that English word in the English-Russian dictionary. In the vast majority of cases, you will find not just one analogue in Russian, but several (sometimes even dozens).

This speaks not so much about the complexity of the Russian language, but about its richness. For every foreign word we have at least several Russian ones and in most cases these will be synonymous words.

Synonyms are words that are spelled and sound differently, but at the same time have similar or close lexical meaning.

Each of them conveys its own shades and thanks to their presence, more suitable words can be used in different cases to avoid. The Dictionary of Synonyms is a reference book for any writer, publicist, journalist, and even an ordinary schoolchild.

This term, naturally, came to us from Ancient Greece, like many others in the Russian language. Literally it translates as “ eponymous».

All synonyms, as a rule, refer to one part of speech. That is, nouns are replaced by nouns, verbs by verbs, definitions by definitions, and so on.

Let's look at examples:

Traveler (noun) – wanderer, traveler, pilgrim, pilgrim;
Run (verb) – hurry, rush, rush, hurry;
Sad (adjective) – sad, dejected, gloomy, despondent;
Drawing () – painting, depicting, outlining, describing;
Slowly () - slowly, for a long time, slowly, not soon, barely.

The reason for the appearance in a language, many synonyms refer to the modification (obsolescence) of some words, as well as the presence in the Russian language of many dialects (), which also add their own variety.

Synonymous words with the same lexical meaning form the so-called ranks(or they are also called nests). Some words may be included in different rows. All of them can be found in modern dictionaries of synonyms (the first of them, by the way, was published exactly 200 years ago).

Now it's probably more convenient to use online dictionaries, but I find it difficult to recommend any of them, because there was no opportunity to fully test them. You can simply enter this query in Yandex or Google to get a list of the most authoritative ones

Types of synonyms (with examples)

The famous linguist Dietmar Rosenthal, from whose Russian language textbooks all Soviet children studied, divided synonyms into three large groups:

complete or absolute;
semantic;
expressive-stylistic or stylistic.

Full synonyms

He called the words absolute synonyms, the meanings of which completely coincide. This means that when they are rearranged, the meaning of the entire text does not change.

For example:

battle - battle, huge - huge, throw - throw

Also, scientific terms can be easily replaced with similar synonyms, and they become more understandable:

linguistics - linguistics, spelling - spelling

Semantic synonyms

In this case, we are talking about words that not only replace each other, but also give speech greater depth, make it richer, saturate it with nuances.

For example:

red – scarlet – crimson

In this case, “red” is just a color, scarlet is already a lighter shade of it, and crimson is, on the contrary, darker.

Another example:

to break - to smash - to destroy - to destroy

This whole series of synonyms means, in principle, the same action. It’s just that its intensity differs (or, if we draw an analogy with color, we can say that the shades change). So, they “break” toys, “destroy” buildings, and “destroy” enemies.

Examples of style synonyms

We most often use such synonyms in colloquial speech, when literary words are replaced with slang ones.

For example:

reprimand - scold, thrashing, thrashing
walk – wander, dangle, hang around, loiter
greedy - miser, stingy, miser, greedy
parents - ancestors, siblings, old people

But it's not just about jargon, of course. Style synonyms include all similar words, but which belong to different speech styles. For example, if you compare commonly used terms and official ones, you can remember:

wife/husband – spouse/spouse
disease - infection

Contextual and phraseological synonyms

There are two more types that were not discussed above. They are quite specific, but also very interesting.

This term refers to words that are not initially synonyms, but can turn into them in the context of a specific sentence. To make it easier to explain, here's an example:

“Vanya was playing with Sharik in the yard. He would throw the ball, and the dog would bring it back to the boy.”

In this case, there are several sets of synonyms. So, individually, the words “Vanya”, “He” and “boy” have nothing in common with each other. But in this text they are used interchangeably, and therefore they can be considered synonyms.

The same is true with the pairs of words “The ball is the dog” and “the ball is his.” And thus, we can draw a simple conclusion - what are contextual synonyms for? They help get rid of tautology, making any text more literate.

Phraseological synonyms

This is a separate type of synonyms in which one word is replaced immediately by a whole phrase(hence the name). Also, an entire phrase will be a synonym for another phrase. Moreover, these are quite stable expressions that we use constantly.

For example, consider the word “A LOT” and its phraseological synonyms:

Of course, each of these phrases is used for a specific subtext. Thus, “your mouth is full” usually speaks of worries, and “the chickens are not pecking” - about money.

Here are some more examples:

Synonyms can also be used to replace phrases. For example, the phrase “RUN FAST”:

Moreover, similar phrases can replace not only individual words, but also each other:

Any phraseological synonyms serve to decorate speech or text, make them more vivid and emotional.

Examples of using synonyms in speech and writing

Let us recall once again the famous Dietmar Rosenthal. He described it this way:

“Synonyms perform the most important function in the Russian language - expressiveness of speech. Thanks to them, there are unlimited possibilities for more precise use of words. When working on texts, special attention should be paid to the selection of synonyms in order to avoid tautology. And use the only word that best suits the specific moment.”

In fact, modern linguists identify several functions of synonyms.

Refinement function. Synonyms serve to more accurately describe concepts.

He was a simple man - ordinary and unremarkable.

Match function. Synonyms are used together, but one of them reinforces the other.

I believe in goodness. And I even believe in him.

Opposition function. Synonyms are also used together, but one simultaneously refutes the previous one and clarifies it.

He didn't laugh, but laughed loudly.

Substitution function. These are the very contextual synonyms that allow you to avoid tautology.

Mom gave her daughter a box. This casket was the same color as the girl’s eyes.

Gain function. Synonyms seem to be “strung” on top of one another, reinforcing the original word.

In battle, the soldiers were brave, courageous and unusually persistent.

In the end, I would like to note that even with synonyms there are exceptions. That is, similar words cannot always be replaced with each other.

For example, let’s take the pair “greedy – stingy”:

He helped the poor, and therefore was not considered greedy (here can be replaced with “stingy”).
He is greedy, he always wants to grab more (here “stingy” does not apply).

So, with all their diversity, you still need to be able to use synonyms.

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site