Challenge: "Find a word without an antonym"

[warryer]

Orange? The fruit. Oh, wait, that's the word for which there is no rhyme. Sorry.

Actually, Eminem rhymed oranges (or-in-jes) with syringes and hinges

with his own private plane, his
own pilot, set to blow college dorm rooms doors off the hinges, oranges, peach, pears, plums,
syringes

 

[EditorOne]

Pretty good!

 

[SkyWalker]

Also, "not" seems to be a pretty good candidate for an antonym-less word.

I am NOT going home.
I am REALLY/TRULY/SURELY going home.

or just the empty word "" is the opposite of NOT, kind of.

its about labeling statements as TRUE or FALSE.

so its still opposites in your brain, even though our language is not perfectly set-up in this case (such as with the word NOT <vs> "" (empty void word) )

 

[Dapper Dan]

I am NOT going home.
I am REALLY/TRULY/SURELY going home.

I disagree, as those all deal with certainty, which is a different thing altogether. If they are antonyms, the sentence "I am really not going home." should be nonsense, shouldn't it?

or just the empty word "" is the opposite of NOT, kind of.

its about labeling statements as TRUE or FALSE.

A quick dictionary search defines a word as "a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning." So the null string clearly does not qualify. :P

so its still opposites in your brain, even though our language is not perfectly set-up in this case (such as with the word NOT <vs> "" (empty void word) )

Whether there exists a concept or idea that has no opposite, I cannot say. It seems pretty hard to prove something like that.

At any rate, kudos for the interesting thread.

 

[Artsu Tharaz]

The antonym of not going home is not going home.

Proof: If you don't go home, and then you don't get home again, you never went anywhere.

 

[Artsu Tharaz]

It'd be interesting to see how test writers calibrate the difficulty of analogy/antonym questions.

Percentage of people who tend to get them correct?

 

[Dapper Dan]

The antonym of not going home is not going home.

Proof: If you don't go home, and then you don't get home again, you never went anywhere.

I don't follow your logic, but really it doesn't matter. Since "not going home" is not a word, it can neither be, nor have, an antonym.

 

[Artsu Tharaz]

I don't follow your logic, but really it doesn't matter. Since "not going home" is not a word, it can neither be, nor have, an antonym.

"I missed the point of the conversation so instead I'm just going to interpret it literally and point out the logical flaws which apparently emerge."

It was a reference to earlier in the thread where I mentioned P + P' = 0 (where P' is the antonym of P). We may also define antonyms with respect to an axis, where each element of the axis must be a linear combination of P and P'.

 

[Dapper Dan]

"I missed the point of the conversation so instead I'm just going to interpret it literally and point out the logical flaws which apparently emerge."

Sorry, I thought this was a fun little adventure through the complexities and inconsistencies of our language. Oh well.

Proof: If you don't go home, and then you don't get home again, you never went anywhere.

Not true. If you don't go home (say you went out to dinner), and then you don't go home again (went to a movie), you still went to dinner and a movie.

 

[Trebuchet]

How about "adverb"?

 

[Zionoxis]

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Checkmate.

 

[yerffej112]

I would actually argue that we don't live in opposites. Our minds are far more comprehensive at interconnections.

More importantly, as a few people here have stated in their own way, context is important. Opposite of heaven is hell, yes? But what about purgatory/limbo?

And what if I argued that heaven and hell both refer to death, so therefore one could also argue that the opposite of heaven and/or hell is life.

Opposite of Christianity? Witchcraft? Islam? Devil Worship? Atheism?

As for Antonym, isn't an antonym a category of descriptive words - Adjectives. So can anyone come up with an adjective that doesn't have an antonym? That might be a challenge (but what is the antonym of gray? Black and White?)

Fun question, thank you SkyWalker!

 

[Felan]

Dark Matter could be said to have no real antonym at this point. If and when we learn more about it we may have an antonym for it.

Dark Energy would also apply here.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Neutron.

 

[EvilBlitz]

Shitting? You can't un-shit and eating is not the opposite of shitting, as vomiting/regurgitating would be the opposite of eating.

Farting? Well some people do talk a lot of shit and it is the opposite end of the body....

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Shitting? You can't un-shit and eating is not the opposite of shitting, as vomiting/regurgitating would be the opposite of eating.

Farting? Well some people do talk a lot of shit and it is the opposite end of the body....

It depends on how you look at it. Putting in is the opposite of putting out.

 

[EvilBlitz]

Well in that case I guess you could argue eating is the opposite of shitting, but what about farting?

Farting is a a by product of gases from the digestive process. You don't put in gas, but you do expel it.
So what would be the opposite of farting?

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Breathing(in(air)). You do put in gas, through breathing, oxygen and nitrogen mainly.

And yea I notice breathing has its own out / in, that's why I say it depends on how you look at it.

 

[DetachedRetina]

How about "adverb"?

Good call. I think most nouns don't have antonyms. People keep saying "not adverb" as if that is an antithetical phrase to "adverb"

But "not adverb" could be adjective, pronoun, milk, spice, detached, etc. It could dtand for anything that is not an adverb.

Verbs that have no "opposite" are harder to come up with, but I suspect they're out there. Most of it is really vague.

What is the opposite of to cook? Is it to eat? Or is it to throw away food? Or is it a theoretical action of making food more raw? (i.e. to uncook)

 

[Nattall There]

Challenge: "Find a word without an antonym"


My theory = "There exists no word which has no opposite word"

(e.g. words/thoughts/concepts in our mind can exist as opposites only)

Try to disprove it?

Pebble

 

[envirodude]

grape

 

[Words]

I think I know where you are trying to drive at here, regardless of what an "antonym" is. Even nouns have "antonyms." You simply have to insert "un" to the word...ungrape...unpebble.

 

[Dapper Dan]

Oh, this thread again. Fun times.

 

[Nattall There]

Antonyms imply a coherent or otherwise conceivable opposite. *Something that has an observable mental or physical opposition. To put "un" "dis" or "non" in front of everything does not imply the pebbles opposite. An "un-pebble" is not only a very Wonderland, Monty Pythonesque word of ridiculousness; the physical and or mental representation of un-pebble would be empty space otherwise known as nothing, and nothing is most definitely not the opposite of pebble. If so, then thats a funny prank one could play on every english teacher when she asks for an antonym of something. Being a widespread acceptable term, nothing could be applied to everything.

Ie- Question- What is the antonym of tall?
* * *
Answer- Nothing

 

[ℜεмїηїs¢εη¢ε]

Also, "not" seems to be a pretty good candidate for an antonym-less word.

Not vs So

Ex:

"You did not do that."

"You did so do that"

 

[Vladimir]

silver

 

[Proletar]

Antonym.


I win.

 

[Vladimir]

Antonym.


I win.

synonym you noob

 

[Words]

Antonyms imply a coherent or otherwise conceivable opposite. *Something that has an observable mental or physical opposition. To put "un" "dis" or "non" in front of everything does not imply the pebbles opposite. An "un-pebble" is not only a very Wonderland, Monty Pythonesque word of ridiculousness; the physical and or mental representation of un-pebble would be empty space otherwise known as nothing, and nothing is most definitely not the opposite of pebble.

Not exactly. In the discussion of existence and nonexistence of empirical objects, which is very related to the idea of "nothing", its key to look at things in relation to the existence of other things. "Unpebble" does not mean "empty space" or "un-everything", it means "everything else exists(or possibly exists) except the pebble."

Similarly, "There is no pebble" does not mean nothing exists. It simply means, as common sense would suggest, that there is no pebble in this particular 3-dimensional space at this given time but that there are other things in other spaces. This statement, similar to "unpebble", carries the common assumption that everything else that obviously exists exists.

Being a widespread acceptable term, nothing could be applied to everything.

The problem with just "nothing" is that it is lacking reference. Nothing[except absolute nothing] must always be in reference to something.

 

[Hawkeye]

Half

Apparently it has the antonym of "whole" which to be honest, I think is incorrect.

 

[Proletar]

synonym you noob

Those are two different things.

 

[Hawkeye]

Those are two different things.

An antonym is a word that has the opposite meaning.
A synonym is a word that has the same (approximate) meaning.

It depends on the angle you look at it. The opposite of "opposite" is the "same" which differs from "identical".

For this reason, "synonym" is the antonym of "antonym".

 

[BigApplePi]

Half

Apparently it has the antonym of "whole" which to be honest, I think is incorrect.

That is incorrect ... I mean correct.

The antonym of half is double ... I mean minus one-half ... I mean ... I don't know what I mean.

Fishmonger. Fishmonger has no antonym.

 

[Proletar]

An antonym is a word that has the opposite meaning.
A synonym is a word that has the same (approximate) meaning.

It depends on the angle you look at it. The opposite of "opposite" is the "same" which differs from "identical".

For this reason, "synonym" is the antonym of "antonym".

Mind = blown. I'm so stupid. I thought the meaning of the thread was to find a word without a synonym, and then I mixed those two words up.


I've got one. "Twilight".

 

[Hawkeye]

I've got one. "Twilight".

Daybreak?


there are words that have no direct antonym such as "inept" and "feckless".

 

[BigApplePi]

Daybreak?


there are words that have no direct antonym such as "inept" and "feckless".

I don't even have to look those up:
ept; feck .

Library has no antonym.

 

[Hawkeye]

I've found one:

Counterpart.

synonym and antonym are "opposite"

What do I win?

 

[ℜεмїηїs¢εη¢ε]

Pebble

Boulder

I've found one:

Counterpart.

synonym and antonym are "opposite"

What do I win?

Counterpart vs Original


How about the verb "bomb?"

"The pilot was going to bomb the warehouse."

You can't unbomb as far as I know

 

[Hawkeye]

Boulder



Counterpart vs Original


How about the verb "bomb?"

"The pilot was going to bomb the warehouse."

You can't unbomb as far as I know

Eh, original isn't an antonym of counterpart

 

[ℜεмїηїs¢εη¢ε]

What's your definition of counterpart?

 

[Hawkeye]

Yin and Yang.

 

[ℜεмїηїs¢εη¢ε]

According to thesaurus.com:

counterpart  [koun-ter-pahrt] S
Part of Speech: noun

Definition: match; identical part or thing

Synonyms: analogue, carbon copy, complement, copy, correlate, correlative, correspondent, dead ringer, ditto*, doppelganger, duplicate, equal, equivalent, fellow, like, look alike, mate, obverse, opposite, opposite number, peas in a pod, pendant, ringer, spit and image, spitting image, supplement, tally, twin, two of a kind

Antonyms: opposite


Just like you said opposite is both a synonym and an antonym but there is technically an antonym listed so... :smiley_emoticons_mr

 

[BigApplePi]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye
I've found one:

Counterpart.

synonym and antonym are "opposite"

You gave it away. Try the antonym for counterpart is opposite.

Boulder



Counterpart vs Original


How about the verb "bomb?"

"The pilot was going to bomb the warehouse."

You can't unbomb as far as I know

How about "succeed." Oh you meant blow up. Implode? Vacuum?
___________
Edit:

Hey ℜεмїηїs¢εη¢ε. We agree!

 

[Hawkeye]

Meh,

How about serendipity

 

[Wolf18]

Give me an antonym for:
Clock
Styrofoam
Gray
Name

 

[Marshall]

Window
Time
Toilet
Dinosaur
Keanu Reeves