They’re important for everyone - from school children and university students to professional authors. Whether for an essay, a term paper, a bachelor’s or master’s thesis, or for curating website and blog content -  familiarizing yourself with synonyms can be useful in many ways. 

What similar verbs are there for the word surprise? Which synonyms exist for the word hope? Our Synonym Dictionary will help you get the answers. Just type the word you want to find similar words or synonyms for into the search box above. Then click on the find button and all the known synonyms for the word you entered will be displayed.

What exactly is a synonym?

Synonym is a term stemming from semantics, a linguistic field involved in the analysis of word meanings. It takes its origins from the Greek words for "together" and "name". Synonyms are words with the same meanings.  One word can replace the other in a particular context without a change in meaning. 

How broadly a term can be used depends on the context accompanying it. Even when two words describe the same thing, they may differ from one another in respect to language level and register, regional influences, modernity, conditions of usage or nuances in valuation. Which is why there are no two words which are exactly alike. Even when there’s a clear reference, a substitution of words can create a valuation change, resulting in a statement or the intention of it no longer being the same – for example, if we would substitute the word "mutt" for "dog".

There are also varying degrees of overlap between synonyms. That’s why synonyms are also defined as words which have similar meanings, which in certain contexts can be substituted for one another. Many words have various meanings depending on the context in question, allowing some synonyms to be used only in certain contexts. For example, coat could replace jacket in some contexts, but not in all: you can coat your house with paint but you can’t jacket your house with paint. In this case, these words share what’s called a partial synonymy.

What synonyms are used for

Synonyms are used to create variety in your writing and avoid repetitions, in order to engage and keep the attention of your readers. The only kind of text that won’t benefit from using synonyms is legal writing, where specific terms must always be referred to with exactly the same words. Synonyms are linguistically related to paraphrases. When we paraphrase, we write the same piece of information in a different way. The linguistic opposite of synonyms are antonyms, which represent the contrasting meaning of a word.