:''This article deals with the general meaning of the term "synonym". For biological synonyms, see Synonym (taxonomy).''
'''Synonyms''' are different words with identical or at least similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be '''synonymous''', and the state of being a synonym is called '''synonymy'''.  The word comes from Ancient Greek  ("''syn''") "with" and  ("''onoma''") "name". The words ''car'' and ''automobile'' are synonyms. Similarly, if we talk about a ''long time'' or an ''extended time'', ''long'' and ''extended'' become synonyms. In the figurative sense, two words are often said to be synonymous if they have the same connotation:

:"a widespread impression that … Hollywood was synonymous with immorality" (Doris Kearns Goodwin)

Synonyms can be any part of speech (e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs or prepositions), as long as both members of the pair are the same part of speech. More examples of English synonyms are:

*''baby'' and ''infant'' (noun)
*''petty crime'' and ''misdemeanor'' (noun)
*''student'' and ''pupil'' (noun)
*''buy'' and ''purchase'' (verb)
*''pretty'' and ''attractive'' (adjective)
*''sick'' and ''ill'' (adjective)
*''quickly'' and ''speedily'' (adverb)
*''on'' and ''upon'' (preposition)
*''freedom'' and ''liberty'' (noun)
*''dead'' and ''deceased'' (adjective)

Note that the synonyms are defined with respect to certain senses of words; for instance, ''pupil'' as the ''"aperture in the iris of the eye"'' is not synonymous with ''student''. Similarly, ''expired'' as ''"having lost validity"'' (as in grocery goods) doesn't necessarily mean death.

In English many synonyms evolved from a mixture of Norman French and English words, often with some words associated with the Saxon countryside (''"folk"'', ''"freedom"'') and synonyms with the Norman nobility (''"people"'', ''"liberty"'').

Some phonic qualities, ambiguous meanings, usage, etc. make them unique. However, many people feel that the synonyms they use are identical in meaning for all practical purposes, and are interchangeable. Different words that are similar in meaning usually differ for a reason: ''feline'' is more formal than ''cat''; ''long'' and ''extended'' are only synonyms in one usage and not in others (for example, a ''long arm'' is not the same as an ''extended arm''). Synonyms are also a source of euphemisms.

The purpose of a thesaurus is to offer the user a listing of similar or related words; these are often, but not always, synonyms.

== "...there is no such thing as a true synonym." ==

The use of a human natural language is a matter of agreement between people and names of things (words) are arbitrarily given to objects. Such names are meant to identify things, etc. and are therefore unique identifiers at the start, though may be longer than a single word. Hence you need disambiguation in defining the meaning of wikipedia entry words too.
So what you have is a list of words that may replace each other subject to various contextual circumstances.

"Those who work with language know that there is no such thing as a true synonym. Even though the meanings of two words may be the same - or nearly so - there are three characteristics of words that almost never coincide: frequency, distribution and connotation."

This is well reflected in various new English dictionaries where you find frequency data next to a dictionary entry, etc.

One of the major achievements in lexicography belongs to a Hungarian translator Tibor Bartos, who compiled his Magyar szótár by claiming the very same idea as above. 
<ref>Laurence Urdang in the Introduction to The Synonym Finder, (1979 Rodale Press, ISBN 0-87857-243-0) "...There is no such thing as a true synonym." </ref>

==Related terms==
'''Antonyms''' are words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings. For example:
*''short'' and ''tall''
*''dead'' and ''alive'' 
*''near'' and ''far'' 
*''war'' and ''peace''
*''increase and decrease''
The words ''synonym'' and ''antonym'' are themselves antonyms. 

'''Synonim''' (gr. synōnymos = 'równoimienny'; za Kopalińskim) - wyraz lub dłuższe określenie równoważne znaczeniowo innemu, lub na tyle zbliżone, że można nim zastąpić to drugie w odpowiednim kontekście. Synonimia może dotyczyć konstrukcji składniowych (''mówić wiersz - mówić wierszem''), form morfologicznych (''profesorowie - profesorzy'') i leksemów.
Synonim nie jest inną nazwą desygnatu, jest wyrazem bliskoznacznym. Nie jest również synonimem równoważny wyraz z obcego języka, chyba że utrwalił się w języku danego narodu jako wyraz pochodzenia obcego (obcojęzyczny) (zobacz: zapożyczenia językowe).

Zawsze można wykazać różnice pomiędzy dwoma synonimami, np. w popularności ich stosowania w określonych zwrotach lub w różnych grupach społecznych. Historycznie rzecz ujmując synonimy mogły kiedyś oznaczać inne rzeczy, a dziś się ujednoliciły znaczeniowo, lub odwrotnie - istnieje tendencja do różnicowania znaczeniowego synonimów, które wraz z istniejącym zawsze rozwojem każdego języka może doprowadzić do całkowitego rozdzielenia znaczeń obecnych synonimów.

Synonimami są np. słowa ''barwa'' i ''kolor'', które znaczą dokładnie to samo, jednak statystyka ich użycia w różnych związkach frazeologicznych jest różna. Między synonimami istnieją zwykle także różnice stylistyczne.

Przeciwieństwem synonimu jest antonim - termin o znaczeniu przeciwstawnym.

'''Synonim''' to także pojęcie stosowane w taksonomii (skrót syn.), przy czym tu jednak oznacza nierównoważne określenia odnoszące się do tego samego podmiotu (w tym wypadku takson).
=== Bibliografia ===
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=== Zobacz też === 
Akronim, allonim, ananim, anonim, antonim, egzonim, eponim, etnonim, hagionim, homonim (termin także stosowany w taksonomii), kryptonim, paronim, pseudonim, toponim.

Kategoria:Językoznawstwo 
Kategoria:Taksonomia

=== Linki ===
* [http://synonimy.eu Synonimy] - Ponad 30 000 synonimów