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Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Which is an antonym or the antonym?

Hi. Which is the correct question? Let us say there are three answer choices for either of the following questions.
Thank you for your help in advance.

1. Which is an antonym (or the antonym) of the word "rude"?
2. Which is an opposite (or the opposite) of the word "rude"?
  

Top answer

Anonymous Which is the correct question? Both are fine, since many or most words can have more than one antonym.

— Mister Micawber

  • Anonymous Which is the correct question?
  • Both are fine, since many or most words can have more than one antonym.
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4 Answers
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AnonymousWhich is the correct question?
Both are fine, since many or most words can have more than one antonym.
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Thank you. If the question asked, "Which is the antonym of 'rude'?" and the answer choices are "nice," "convenient" and "late," I believe the correct answer would be "nice."

Now, my question is whether from that we could make the statement "The antonym of 'rude' is 'nice'" and whether that statement means that the only antonym of "rude" is "nice," which would be incorrect. Thank you again
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That's right. Nice is an antonym of rude. Better antonyms of rude would be polite, courteous and respectful.

You can say "An antonym of 'rude' is 'nice'", but saying that one is the antonym of the other is misleading, because there are many related words involved.

You're correct. If you said "The antonym of 'rude' is 'nice'", you w
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Unless the class is an advanced one, I would expect to see the word 'opposite' used rather than 'antonym'.

Clive
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