Antonyms Want Equal Time!

“The antonyms for dreams are actuality, certainty, existence, fact, reality, substance, and truth.”—James Dye

But, boy, the power of dreams should not be discounted!

Synonyms of many words can easily be listed and compared, their connotations noted and discussed, and a decision made as to which one would be best to use. The same is true of antonyms in writing. I think a great exercise would be to make lists of synonyms for two antonyms. Students could consider the lists and try to create pairs with the most similar meaning. Here is a list of possible pairs:

Again conversation and discussion is an important element in the effectiveness of this lesson. Students need the opportunity to express their thinking and feelings in words.

Here is an Antonym heading for a Word Study notebook:

I had an amazing day. I hope yours was great as well!

Ann