Lexical Semantics – Word Relation Terms

1. Synonymy & Antonymy

• Synonym – words with the same or nearly the same meaning.
  
  • big / large
• Para-synonym – words with similar meaning but not identical in all contexts.
  
  • big / huge (similar, but “huge” is stronger)
• Poecilonym – a rare term for synonym.
• Antonym – words with opposite meanings.
  
  • hot / cold
• Contranym (Auto-antonym) – a word with two opposite meanings.
  
  • sanction (“approve” vs “penalize”)

2. Hierarchical Relations

• Hypernym – a general term (superordinate).
  
  • animal (hypernym of dog, cat)
• Hyponym – a more specific term (subordinate).
  
  • dog (hyponym of animal)
• Co-hyponym / Co-ordinate term – words sharing the same hypernym.
  
  • dog and cat (both hyponyms of animal)
• Troponym – a verb that describes a specific manner of another verb.
  
  • stroll (troponym of walk)

3. Part–Whole Relations

• Meronym – word that names a part of something.
  
  • wheel (meronym of car)
• Holonym – word that names a whole of which something is a part.
  
  • car (holonym of wheel)
• Co-meronym – parts of the same whole.
  
  • wheel and engine (co-meronyms of car)

4. Special Meaning Relations

• Metonym – a word used to refer to something closely related.
  
  • The crown for “monarchy”
• Retronym – a new term created for an old concept due to a new version.
  
  • acoustic guitar (after electric guitar was invented)
• Polyseme – a single word with multiple related meanings.
  
  • mouth (of a person, of a river)
• Pertainym – adjective related to a noun.
  
  • musical → music

5. Sound/Spelling Relations

• Homophone – words with the same pronunciation but different meaning/spelling.
  
  • flower / flour
• Homograph – words with the same spelling but different meaning/pronunciation.
  
  • lead (metal) / lead (to guide)
• Heterograph – words with different spelling and meaning but same pronunciation.
  
  • two / too / to
• Homonym – same spelling/pronunciation, different meaning (can be homographs or homophones).
  
  • bat (animal) / bat (sports equipment)
• Heteronym – same spelling, different pronunciation/meaning.
  
  • tear (rip) / tear (cry)

6. Related Form

• Paronym – words derived from the same root, often similar in form and meaning.
  
  • biology / biological