Structure and Usage

by Hla Min

Updated : June 2025

Antonyms are words which have almost the opposite meaning for the given context.
Since some words have multiple meanings, one must be careful of the meaning associated with an antonym.
For example, Love and Hate are antonyms.
In Pali, the antonyms of Lobha (Greed), Dosa (Anger or Hatred) and Moha (Ignorance of Delusion) are Alobha (Non-greed), Adosa (Non-hatred) and Amoha (Non-ignorance or Wisdom).

Homonyms are words which sound the same.
Examples
air, heir
rain, rein, reign
throne, thrown
A puzzle based on homonyms :
“What is the difference between the Prince of Wales and a cricket ball?”
The Prince of Wales is heir to the throne. A cricket ball is thrown to the air.

is usually a phrase whose meaning is not obvious
gets the meaning accepted due to usage over time
is a linguistic device
During my middle school days, one of my uncles gave me books (including “A Book of Idioms”). From the book, I learned that “the hand that rocks the cradle” stands for “a mother”.
“Rain cats and dogs” is an idiom which means “Rain heavily”. In this example, the idiom uses a metaphor.
No one knows the root of the idiom “kick the bucket” meaning “dies”. Someone guessed that a man being hanged by a rope might kick a bucket.
Idioms should be used sparingly. If you combine two idioms mentioned above and say “The hand that rocked the cradle kicked the bucket” you might receive LOL (Laughing Out Loud).

Synonyms are words which have almost the same meaning for the given context.
Since some words have multiple meanings, one must specify the meaning associated with a synonym.
Dictionary, Thesaurus, Lexicon and Vocabulary are synonyms.
Their usage depends on the context. In general, Lexicon is a body of knowledge (or dictionary) of Latin and Greek.
At one time, Lexicon is a card game where players create words and score points. It was superseded by Scrabble.

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