Rules For Synonyms

March 8, 2022

Synonyms Rules and Methods

The term synonyms means a phrase or word which means similar to another word or phrase in the same language. On this page we’ll see the Rules For Synonyms and understand how to answer questions based on the same.

According to linguistic studies, most of the English words are derived from Latin and Greek language. Each English word contains a root or a suffix or prefix, so all we have to do is to find that root, analyze whether it is of Greek or a Latin origin and then derive the meaning out of the word.

Rules for Synonyms

A synonyms may have multiple meaning of the same word. However, always remember that any change in synonym is relative to its type – adjective, adverb, preposition, verb.

Verb – Jump and bounce
Preposition – in and within
Adverb – Comfortably and warmly
Adjective – Gorgeous and beautiful

Rule 1 – Building Word Families

Word families are like a family tree where you have the main word and then branch it out with other words that hold a same meaning. The meaning is somewhat similar to the parent or the root word. Let’s take an example below:

For Example:

Let the root word be Happy – now we have to associate more words that branch out from Happy:
- Gay
- Merry
- Joyful
- Jovial
- Jolly
- Delighted
- Gleeful ……………..etc.

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Rule 2 – Associative Words

There exists a set of words that have the charge to associate itself with other words carrying a similar or closely related meaning. For these types of words few of the letters are same for all the associated words with the same meaning. For these words, a positive word will only associate with positive words and negatives will associate with negative ones.

For example:

Apple – Now you need to have words that you can associate with apple. As much as you think you will get a longer list. let’s say:
- fruit, red, citrus, healthy, sour, sweet, brand, rotten, peeled, skewed, green, pie, flavor, chop, slice etc. This association helps you to get more words inside your head than you would normally do.
Dog – Let’s associate some words with dog:
- breed, animal, faithful, domestic, pet,stray, shaggy, naughty, panting, chained, licked, bite, howl, bark, shout, sniff, paw, beware etc.

Rule 3 – Word Charge

In order to answer any question based on vocabulary, it is important that you know the charge that that the word is carrying first. For Synonyms the word charge will be the same for the question and the answer.

These charges can be:

Positive – words that give positive connotation. Example – help, joy, love, support, pride, etc.
Negative – words that give a negative connotation. Example – anger, disappointment, loss, hatred, hostility, crime, etc.
Neutral – Words that do not any predominant connotation. Example – weird, writing, dog, ship, fables, etc.

Rule 4 – Prefix and Suffix

Adding a prefix or a suffix to get several words that men the same is another rule that you can give you a book full of words easy to remember and use. Let’s see the list given below:

Below mentioned are some commonly used root/prefixes and suffixes with their respective key word, which will help to derive meaning of a variety of English words having similar meanings:

Root	Meaning	Example
1. Act	do, act	agent, counteract
2. Agr	field	agriculture, agoraphobia
3. Alt	high	altitude, alter
4. Alter	other	alternative, altercation
5. Am	friend	amity, amorous
6. Apt	fit	adapt, aptitude
7. Ben	good	benovelant, benefactor
8. Bibl	book	biblical, bibliography
9. Bio	life	biography, boiology
10. Brev	short	brevity, abbreviation
11. Chrom	colour	chromium, chromatic
12. Chron	time	chronology, chronic
13. Cord	heart	cordial, accord
14. cid	kill	suicide, precision
15. cred	believe	incredible, credentials
16. corp	body	corpulent, corpse
17. cosm	world	cosmic, cosmopolitan
18. dem	people	democracy, demographics
19. derm	skin	epidermics, dermatologists
20. dic/dict	speak	indicate, contradict
21. domain	lord, master	dominate, indomitable
22. dorm	sleep	dormant, dormitory
23. fort	strong	fortitude, fortify
24. form	shape	conform, reform
25. frag, fract	break	fracture, fragile
26. gen	birth,kind	generation, generic
27. graph	write	autograph, graphic
28. grat	please	gratitude, congratulate
29. hydr	water	hydration, dehydrated
30. ject	throw	inject, projection
31. junct	join	conjunction, junction
32. log	word, study	catalogue, psychology
33. magn	great	magnificent, magnitude
34. man	hand	manufacture, manual
35. mater	mother	maternal
36. mega	large	megaphone, megaton
37. ment	mind	mentality, mentally
38. merg	sink	submerge, merge
39. meter	measure	chronometer, symmetry
40. migr	wander	migrate, immigration
41. mir	look	mirror, admire
42. mort	death	mortality, immortality
43. mult	many	multitude, multifarious
44. mut	change	mutation, transmute
45. nat	born	natal, innate
46. ocul	eye	binocular
47. ped	child	Pediatrics, pedagogue
48. pet	seek	impetus, petition
49. phob	fear	claustrophobia
50. phon	sound	phonic, phoenix
51. pot	drink	potion, potable
52. prehend/s	take, grasp	apprehend, comprehend
53. psych	mind	psychic, psychology
54. rupt	break	rupture, erupt
55. sci, scio	know	science, conscious
56. sent,sens	feel	sentiment, sensible
57. serv	keep	conserve, reserve
58. soph	wisdom	sophisticated, philosophy
59. somn	sleep	insomnia, insomlonence
60. tang, ting	touch	tangent, contingency, contigeous
61. tele	distance	telegraph,
62. term	end	terminal, terminate
63. therm	heat	thermal, thermos
64. tract	draw	attract, extract
65. urb	city	urban, suburb
66. vac	empty	vacate, evacuate
67. voc, vok	call	revoke, vocation
68. vid, vis	see	visible, evident
69. verb	word	verbose, verbatim

Here we have some practice questions of Rules For Synonyms –

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