[ noun ] two words that can be interchanged in a context are said to be synonymous relative to that context <noun.communication>
Synonym \Syn"o*nym\ (s[i^]n"[-o]*n[i^]m), n.; pl. {Synonyms} (s[i^]n"[-o]*n[i^]mz). [F. synonyme, L. synonyma, pl. of synonymum, Gr. synw`nymon. See {Synonymous}.] 1. One of two or more words (commonly words of the same language) which are equivalents of each other; one of two or more words which have very nearly the same signification, and therefore may often be used interchangeably. See under {Synonymous}. [Written also {synonyme}.]
All languages tend to clear themselves of synonyms as intellectual culture advances, the superfluous words being taken up and appropriated by new shades and combinations of thought evolved in the progress of society. --De Quincey.
His name has thus become, throughout all civilized countries, a synonym for probity and philanthropy. --Macaulay.
In popular literary acceptation, and as employed in special dictionaries of such words, synonyms are words sufficiently alike in general signification to be liable to be confounded, but yet so different in special definition as to require to be distinguished. --G. P. Marsh.
2. An incorrect or incorrectly applied scientific name, as a new name applied to a species or genus already properly named, or a specific name preoccupied by that of another species of the same genus; -- so used in the system of nomenclature (which see) in which the correct scientific names of certain natural groups (usually genera, species, and subspecies) are regarded as determined by priority. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
3. One of two or more words corresponding in meaning but of different languages; a heteronym. [Rare] [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
The winning synonym for Sacramento's 26,379 circular lids is expected to be announced Wednesday night at a council meeting.
However, he acknowledged, "The word Edsel has become a synonym for loser.
A good place to start would be to repeal the bill's provision for "employer sanctions," which is, we are now learning, a synonym for harassment.
The company's chairman and chief executive officer, Morton E. David, stresses that the Franklin data bases work through phonetics so that users don't have to know how to spell the word properly to get a definition or synonym.
Employees use the term "Penske time" as a synonym for speed.
"It's difficult coming up with a one-syllable synonym for 'daughters,'" he says.
"What is a good synonym for that?
Their post-war caution toward the Soviets gave rise to the term "Finlandization" as a synonym for obsequiousness in a country's foreign policy.
To most business people, the word 'transformation' is a synonym for 'change'.
YUPPIE, THE 1980'S ACRONYM for "young urban professional," became a synonym for greedy strivers.